Should America be a Christian Nation? | Teen Ink

Should America be a Christian Nation?

April 29, 2024
By linceO SILVER, Dennison, Minnesota
linceO SILVER, Dennison, Minnesota
6 articles 0 photos 0 comments

When it comes to different types of religion it becomes a touchy subject. Specifically when it comes to God. Many see the United States as a Christian nation, but the Constitution doesn’t inform us much about religion. Many say that America should be a Christian nation while others say it already is. But we should believe in our own beliefs, no one should be forced to believe in something they disagree with. I’m a Catholic myself but I believe that others should be able to follow what fits them. If we were to be a Christian nation many things would have probably been very different for us, war might break out or people would be moving away if we were a Christian nation because they believe in something that they don’t or have a different view. Christianity, the Constitution, and Politics all tie in together giving each of us a different view, which is why we make our own choices.

The topic of God and Christianity can start many heated arguments about whether God is real or not. Gallup, a global analytics and advisory firm that runs polls and surveys wrote an article entitled “How many Americans believe in God?”, on June 24, 2022, and ran a survey to see how many people believed in God. In 1944, 96% of the U.S. population believed in God, but in 2017, it went down to 81%. Faith means believing in God and putting trust in Him to lead us on a good path. Christians like me put our faith in God because He has helped us in our lives and benefits us in many ways. I have been a Catholic my whole life and it's what I believe in, I don’t let politics play much of a role in my life because it just gets in my relationship with God. I believe in Him because my family always goes to church and I believe that He is here to help me with my life and those around me. And many others believe that our founding fathers were all Christians, but if they were then they would have written rules or guides for a Christian nation.

Some of our founding fathers could’ve been Christian, it's most likely that they believed in something else or didn’t have a religion at all. God is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance but it doesn’t mention anything about God or any type of religion. The First Amendment allows us to practice our religion freely but even that doesn’t mention anything of a Christian nation. That’s why there are so many religions being practiced here in the U.S. because if it was all one religion then America would be very different from now. According to Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about events and trends around the world, did research on October 27, 2022, and found out that 45% of Americans want a Christian nation. As much as I believe in God, I think people should try to become Christian and learn about the religion on their own and find out who they are. But it's not easy when people are heavily involved with politics and don’t have a religious view.

Although Christianity plays into a conversation between Republicans and Democrats things can either come into agreement or they can turn out to be a messy argument. Most Republicans are more Christian than Democrats but it can be the other way around. A survey ran by Statista, on November 2023, by Veera Korhonen, showed that 11% of Republicans didn't have a religion while 26% of Democrats didn’t have one. They use Christianity to pull that into arguments, and they really shouldn’t. Christianity doesn’t involve much politics but it becomes used and sometimes manipulated which is not how it should be indicated. Politics shouldn’t pull God into arguments because it depicts Him in a bad way when he is not. America needs to keep politics and Christianity away from each other because they don’t go hand in hand and create fights not to be made.

Finally, America has been its own country for a very long time and it should stay that way. I think people should try putting faith in God but they should not have to be forced. God loves us even if we don’t worship Him. I as a Christian think that people should believe in what they want to believe in.  As it is said in Moses 3:17, “Thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee.” it means that we can choose to either follow Jesus or not, to choose between good or bad. People in America should believe in God but they shouldn’t have to be forced to, Christianity and Politics do not go well together and it is written in the Constitution that we can practice our religion. We should be able to make our own choices without having to be pressured all the time. It’s why we call America a nation and not a Christian nation because there are many other religions out there that everyone in the U.S. should be able to practice.



Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.