We are proud to be a very tolerant society in every way, and it is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of their race, nationality, or religion. Constitution states that “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.” As enshrined in the First Amendment, religious freedom includes two complementary protections: the right to religious belief and expression and a guarantee that the government neither prefers religion over non-religion nor favors particular faiths over others. For instance, as emperor, Constantine could affect what opportunities were available to practice different faiths. In Sanskrit, an ancient language of India, buddha means “awakened one.” While Buddhist art and writings describe at least a dozen beings referred to as “buddhas,” there is only one historical figure known as the Buddha, a spiritual teacher whose path to enlightenment forms the core of Buddhist thought and practice. I suspect that, contra many who have implicated a religiously motivated (if theologically erroneous) clericalism in the concealment practiced by so many bishops in the face of the scandals of the 20th century, “the means proper to the earthly city” – especially preservation of financial assets and social credit – likely played a greater role.

The response of many who see contemporary secularism, cosmopolitanism, and globalization with dismay has been to turn to some sort of Christian or ethnic nationalism, to restore (as they see it) by political force the status quo of civic Christianity and ethnic bonds. I see the central issue as syncretism, and the particular flavor of Christian nationalism he describes as but a step short of a cultural appropriation of the Abrahamic Covenant, if not indeed the Mosaic Covenant. Although he does not explain it so, I would interpret it as a particular mutation of a Bible-based Anglophone Protestantism, in which a mixed group of itinerant settlers internalize readings of the Tanakh – the Christian “Old Testament” – to the point of an identification with the Biblical Israel; the (far more understandable) development in the Black church of an identification with the Biblical Israel in its exodus from slavery is a confirming parallel. As a result, the spread of Christianity integrated the Church and the state more than had been previously. This messianism found its way into the American Catholic Church as well, through a phenomenon I would refer to as “American Fatimism,” by which some American Catholics took the defining mission of the 20th Century as anti-Communism (“Russia spreading her errors throughout the world”) and American superpower status as rendering their country the chosen people in a mission from the Blessed Virgin herself.

Its founder, the redoubtable Archbishop John Hughes, went to great lengths to protect the Catholic children of New York from anti-Catholic civic Protestantism; recent moves in Oklahoma and Louisiana to return particles of civic Christianity to the public schools must have “Dagger John” turning over in his grave. In Catholic belief, bird droppings are seen as a sign of good fortune, while Turkish traditions consider it extremely lucky. There are 50 Muslim-majority countries worldwide. There is a level at which the whole concept of the nation-state itself is at fault here; as I recently observed to a particularly gifted student who has become a friend, there are a thousand little things you can do for your neighborhood, your village, or even your city, but almost the only thing you can personally do for your country as nation-state is to fight in a war. Let the bun fight commence. Islam, which is practiced by more than 1.91 billion people, is second. This song touched many people, and it still does today, because whenever life’s troubles get to be too much for us, we can turn it up loud. The study of religion can help one understand the complex and sometimes volatile relationships between religion and politics, economics, and social structures.

To know more, continue your study! Do you know which company debuted its logo in 1909? And while the words “Sunni” and “Islam” have become increasingly frightening, so few Americans even know what a “Shiite” is, except that they seem even more mysterious and dangerous than “plain – old Muslims”. This wise warning, which could have prevented so many of the wrongs committed by the civic arm of the Church, nonetheless places a remarkable burden of conscience on bishops and pastors, to run what are in effect corporations, even large ones, not by worldly wisdom but by the guidance of the Gospel. Even more importantly, guidelines about what is a truly separate religion and what is simply a denomination (subdivision) are rare, if not nonexistent. Easy to blame for troubles in the empire, early Christians experienced persecution, such as penalties for practicing their religion and even being put to death. Would you tell your priest to do something differently if they were being intolerant? Again, it is not mine to judge how well this is being done – this too is above my pay grade, and I am grateful for that. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity.