What Kind of Nation?

Barack Obama has pointed out that if one looks at the number of Muslims in the US, it would be one of the largest Muslim nations in the world.

Link:UK Telegraph Article Based on Obama's Comments

The reality is, not hardly. Even if one estimates there were 6 million Muslims in the country, it would have the 34^th largest number of Muslims. Again though, the reality is hardly that.

Link: Statistics for US Religions

There are between 1.5 and 1.6 million Muslims in the US.

Looking at some figures, one quickly sees that all Christianity in the US greatly outpaces the number of Muslims. However, if we scroll down (Stats for US Religions) and look at the 10 largest religious bodies in the United States, and divide them up by the numbers, there are around:

66.4 million Roman Catholics

16.4 million Southern Baptists

8.2 million United Methodists

5 million ELCA Lutherans

4.5 million of the Church of God

3.6 million Presbyterians

3.5 million of the National Baptist Convention

2.7 million of the Assembly of God

2.5 million LCMS Lutherans

In 2004, 39 million people claimed to be secularists, while 224.5 million claimed to be Christian.

So are we to call the US a “Muslim” nation then? Before we jump the gun, we could call it a Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, United Methodist, Lutheran, etc. or simply Christian, secular, or even a Jewish nation before we ever got around to calling it “Muslim.”

We know that when Obama suggested that the US could be one of the largest Muslim nations in the world he was really just pandering. That’s all there is to it. His speeches and pronouncements are all clichés and platitudes and in most cases do not examine the issues in a truly substantive and useful way. Welcome to the Mediocre Society, the Milquetoast Society, the Lukewarm Society. That is the America of Obama’s “Hope” and “Change.” Say goodbye for the time being to American exceptionalism. To the rest of us who didn’t vote for it, and are starting to not recognize the America we’ve always known and loved it is the era of “Broke” and “Strange” not “Hope” and “Change.”

A final note:

A common misconception is that the Constitution promotes “separation of church and state.” It does no such thing.

The article I link to above, says that “separation of church and state” is derived from the Constitution, from the 1^st amendment. While one might claim that that idea is derived from the Constitution, more specifically, the first Amendment as found in the Bill of Rights says,

Bill of Rights, Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html

The Constitution neither establishes or disestablishes any religion; it neither encourages nor discourages any religion. There is no mandate to separate church from state, nor to have a state-run church, or a church-run state.

Thanks for “listening.”