Actually the United States is a “Democracy in a Republic” that allows all religions free expression.  But there are those politicians who seek to win votes who tell the hinterland dwellers that most of them are Christian and therefore they live in a “Christian” nation.  The influx of non-whites (this does not mean OUR non-whites), Muslims and refugees from many nations that are not democracies in republics have changed the demographics but one Governor Thinks we all are Christian.

Americans who today live in the 50 states of the Union are lucky.  Religious differences led to settling a “Puritan” New England, a Quaker Pennsylvania and a Catholic Maryland with Baptists settling most of the South. Going further south you could encounter Spanish Catholics and French Protestants. Thank goodness that the Mormons left the East to go to Utah where there IS a Mormon state next to a Great Salt Lake.  Somehow, Norwegians, Swedes and other Scandinavians settled in the northern middle states and were absorbed like the waves of Germans, Poles and other Middle Europeans who spread throughout the States.  This is NOT a “United States”.  It is not even “America” if you think that it was named for a cartographer rather than Christopher Columbus who discovered the islands in the Caribbean.  And then there are the 101 Haitians who just made it to America. They most likely are Christians but will Christian America accept them?  I think not.

But, back to Kirk Fordice, Former Governor of Mississippi, who stated that America is a Christian nation.  Granted, a majority still exists with differences allowed for different sects of Christianity living all over the country. Many believe they live under the protection of Jesus.  Jews were allowed to live in New York after the bellicose Dutch governor was persuaded to allow a little experimentation by permitting refugees the right to settle in New Amsterdam.  That’s right – refugees, along with gentlemen looking for their fortunes along with slaves and bondsmen and women who came over the seas to push the original settlers to the west after conflicts killed off most of the most non-adaptive types.

This governor was interested in the votes of his constituents and did not care about the feelings of all the others who cannot vote for him.  But, it is his lack of real understanding how this “Christian” nation became the savior or the monster it is perceived by other nations sharing this world that worries me.  He is the prototype of the ugly American - but in his own land.

How can we export what we are to a world that does not like the picture of this spokesman for ugly Americans that show off their vulgar wealth while many of their own countrymen are grossly neglected and whose voices are unheard?