I pulled this from a thread on another forum that I belong to yes, I got premission anyways I thought it might be intresing to see how someone from another county sees religion in America.

I should preface my comments by saying I have never been to the US and I am not likely to go there. My impression of America comes from the TV and family and friends who have visited the country. It would appear that God is very in your face in the US in a way that isn't the case in the UK. TV evangelists get a lot of air time, whereas they don't play well over here, thank goodness. What is it about Americans that makes them more susceptable to religion than those of us in the UK? Religious or not I have heard that per head of population there is more crime in America than there is in the UK, although we are rapidly catching up!

I'd say that was incorrect. I have been all over the world. There are religous small towns that I have been to in the south, but for the most part it isnt anything like what the above would have you believe. Amazingly broad generalization.

See 'Clowns gather for annnual church tribute!' thread by swtp.

I think some of it is our educational system. We modify history to be sure it teaches the right lessons, we modify geography, we modify grades, we barely teach the scientific method at all. I think it's a downward spiral into superstition and disrespect for logic.

speaking as an American, I can tell you that your impressioni is only accurate if you are speaking of the south. The northern states, by and large, are not as religious. Really, sometimes I think we should have let the south secceed from the union.

I'm not religious. Most of my friends are not religious. Before I started visiting internet forums, I really didn't think that the stereotype you write about above was true. But I know better. It's mostly the south.

Americans merely have a lot of freedom. It's not that a lot of Americans are devoutly religious. It's just that those who are most religious speak the loudest. In any case, pastors get airtime because they pay for it. If you don't want to watch it, you don't, and I'm pretty sure that not many people do. Of course, I live in CA and not in the Bible belt, but I would imagine it's quite the same in most of the rest of the country.

I feel the same way. I think the country should simply split in half.

Another uneducated broad generalization.

What about all of the street preachers I hear about in NYC?

Honestly, until I came here, I never realized that religion was such a hot topic (and apparently in the real world it isn't)

I've been all over the world, I traveled for a living for a good many years, even lived in Northern UK for a while (Suffolk). Honestly? I found religion to be MORE in your face in the UK than in my home town of Seattle.

Although, in my own state, there are little tiny rural towns that are pockets of well, the fervently religious. But even then, it's not a problem and it's certainly not "in your face".

I'm religiously "liberal" shall we call it. Even traveling in the deep south I never had a problem or felt uncomfortable. It leads me to believe people are making mountains out of molehills when they say it's in your face and stealing your rights. It's hogwash in my humble and single opinion.

In my travels, I found economic warfare more prevalent than religious warefare (so to speak). The war between the haves and have-nots which is religion neutral is far more an issue.

I hate it here I want to move to North Carolina SO BAD! Just one state up but I love my wife so here I stay......

I grew up in NYC. There really aren't many, and the difference between a street preacher in NYC and a street preacher in SC is that in NYC, the people gathered around think he's crazy and are there to laugh and pitty him.



I have felt very uncomfortable in the south and in a country where people are actually lobbying to have intelligent design taught in public schools as a viable theory, there's a problem and most certainly a mountain.

I would like to see the statistics on how many people want intelligent design taught in public schools since it hasn't been taught in at least 30 years and it hasn't been passed.

However, do we know of ANY public school that's currently teaching Intelligent Design in the SCIENCE classroom? I haven't heard of any.

They'll push for it, but the reality is that not enough Christians believe in intelligent design to back it being taught in Science class.

Now, teaching it in Sociology or Comparative Religions is a possibility, and frankly, I'm not necessarily opposed to that. High School aged kids aren't stupid (far from it), they'll come to their own conclusions regardless of what they're taught, obviously.

I think Intelligent Design is a straw man argument. I know tons of people will disagree with me though.

I lived in Augusta ,Ga. and I lived in Atlanta, Ga.

And just between these two cities I felt/noticed a major difference in mentality. I noticed alot of racism in Augusta too. And they were /seemed more religious there. My mother was white and my step-father black and they couldn't even feel safe going out together anywhere,so we moved to Atlanta.

But there were many people from the north that had moved to Atlanta.

We got people standing down here protesting abortion there’s a guy here who goes all over the place & straps a baby doll to him & pass out information on how it’s a sin. He’s holding up signs that goes on all over the place.

Can you tell me why most of the republicans elected to office outwardly do not accept evolution? Why do political analysts say that a candidate has to demonstrate a religious faith and affiliation in order to be considered "electable?"



Are you implying that high school aged kids are not impressionable?

MissMel, I respect your oppinion but you couldn't be further from the truth. Just because you haven't seen this movement, it's there, and it is becoming very powerful. Christians were apathetic for years, and allowed seculars to gain a place in America, now that they realize what they've done, they're on fire. They will stop at nothing to win this culture war, and unfortunately, the movements started at just the right time. Fanatics always lead a group, they are the loudest. Christian fanatics are infiltrating the political system to change the world, and Muslim fanatics are bombing creating chaos. If you don't think the religious movement is real, let me ask you something. Why do you think Mike Huckabee is doing so well in the election?

Because they're frigging hypocrites who are onto the fact that a huge segment of the American public is willing to vote in a brainless block.

Back from The Brink

Before the midterm elections of 2006, dominionists controlled both houses of the U.S. Congress, the White House and four out of nine seats on the U.S. Supreme Court. They were one seat away from holding a solid majority on the Supreme Court. As of January 1, 2007, dominionists will not control the leadership of either house of Congress, and the President will no longer be able to so easily appoint dominionists to the federal courts.

Five of the Republican Senators who were unseated on November 7 received whopping scores of 100% from the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family Voter Scorecards. Those Senators are: Conrad Burns (R-MT), George Allen (R-VA), Rick Santorum (R-PA), James Talent (R-MO), and Mike DeWine (R-OH). Rick Santorum was the number three ranking Republican in the party. Santorum and Allen both had Presidential ambitions. (FRC and FOF are the most politically influential of dominionist organizations.) For more discussion of the elections go to Talk To Action.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Dominionists were very close to controlling all three branches of the federal government from which they could impose their narrow interpretation of scripture on the rest of society. People so close to full political power are not going to go away. The American people need to maintain vigilance and understand the history of how dominionists came to political power. And we need to embrace democracy with a passion -- for it was voter apathy that allowed leaders like Pat Robertson to get so many dominionists elected to Congress in the first place.


http://www.theocracywatch.org/

You've contradicted yourself, where do you live again?

It's from another forum.

What the hell is a Dominionist?

So that's not his question...okay....

If they continue to gain power, eventually we'll have a mass emigration of the intelligentsia. If they uniformly immigrate to one country, that country will become a big intellectual power in the 21st century. Not because there are so many American intellectuals now, but because when one place develops an unusually high concentration of intellectuals, others from all over the world are attracted to join them (something like what happened in the 1880's with the Parisian Impressionist scene or what happened in New York in the 1930's/40's when abstract expressionists moved en masse to New York).

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum...p;#entry2136299

Dominion thead

He is in a solid 3rd place ahead of Ron Paul, polling around 20 percent nationally among Republicans, and is out of money. You don't need to worry about Huck.

No he is asking the same question as the guy/wondering the same thing, it confused me at first

Easy, it's marketing, plain, good old fashioned marketing... I suppose the same people who believe candidates lies about their devout faith, are the same people who will believe that bikini clad women will pop out of their fridge if they drink Budweiser.



Given that I've raised a kid to adulthood, taught at a community college and taught after school programs at the High School and home educated my own child, I would say that no, High School aged kids aren't very impressionable, by in large they tend to be skeptics about anything an authority figure tells them is true. They're more adult in a lot of ways than most people give them credit for. They're not 7, they're 17.

Don't look now but he just took West Virginia (the first Super Tuesday result). He won't run out of funds. His church will bail him out.

The far right./trying to impose theocracy/and infiltrate government/wipe out secularism

Huck won WV because the McCain and Paul voters voted for him against Romney. West Virginia uses a convention system, not a primary. Only around 1100 people vote until one candidate gets a majority. Huck won on the second ballot. The first one looked like this:

Mitt Romney had 464 votes (41%)

Mike Huckabee had 375 votes (33%)

John McCain had 176 votes (16%)

Ron Paul had 118 votes (10%)

The second:
Mitt Romney has 521 votes

Mike Huckabee has 567 votes

John McCain has 12 votes

http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewsto...p;storyid=34426

And Huck doesn't have a church.

Seems kind of Prejudice. I'm from the South and I'm not religious in the least. And in my opinion it's no worse than the North.

I think the entire point of the whole thread is that people like the religious right have to much power these days & tend to push their beliefs on the rest of us. And it does not matter to these people that we do not care about their God & want to worship what ever God/s we see fit too. They truly believe that it should be a crime NOT to believe in their God. Yes, the religious right call themselves Christians & their numbers are huge they have the power & money to get what laws they want passed & they get it done! A lot of you have said that it takes only a few to make the others look bad, this is just not a few people here & there they number in the billions here in the U.S. I’m going to post some of their website & see for yourselves, these people are VERY real & here to stay! For those of you who are Christians you should be fighting this to these people hate you just as much they hate non-Christians! Do not let these people fool you they are very real!



http://www.cc.org/

http://atheism.about.com/od/religiousright/a/overview.htm


http://www.patrobertson.com/


http://www.falwell.com/

I live in NYC and know nothing about these street preachers you are supposedly talking about !! The older people believe in religions because that was how they were raised. Younger set believes more in the golden rule !!

I personally have never ever met a single person who thinks that Falwell or Pat Robertson were good guys and actually listens to those fools. I've never met a christian that thought they were great... in fact, most I know think they're crackpots with too much money and time. They're charismatic southern Baptists, the vast majority of Christians don't agree with them at ALL.

I would not claim and speak for the vast majority of christians if the quote above me was what I had to base it upon..

I dunno, have you ever seen anyone come in here to UM and wax eloquently about what great guys Jerry and Pat are? I haven't.

No, but I doubt the vast majority of christians visited this forum and if they did they didn't bring up the subject of Jerry and pat, atleast we both must have missed it if they did ^.^

edit: actually I am pretty sure a big part of the vast majority of christians cant read/speak or write english neither

I'm from american and I'm an atheist and religion is a disease that makes things worse for people. It makes them blind.

Sorry you feel that way because these are the vast majority that your talking about. Where do you think that they get the money to help build these colleges, & all the many foundations that people give to that people like Falwell, Robertson, Etc. Just because the people that YOU know personally do not agree with them does not make these people any less dangerous. People give billions to these groups & a lot of it goes to help get more of their people elected into office. They don’t have to be great you just have to believe in the same values that they do is all. You don’t have to like someone to believe in the same values that they do.

Do you really think that people with this much power & money care what you & I think or believe?


http://atheism.about.com/od/religiousright/a/overview.htm


The term "radical/religious right" refers to groups which, despite other ideological differences, share in common that they pose a threat to liberty, democracy and pluralism. They are "radical" in that they advocate extreme and dramatic changes in society. They are "religious" in that they tend to base their ideologies upon religious doctrines and religious texts.
Members range from self-righteous moral warriors like Pat Robertson and Don Wildmon to less overtly religious organization like the Heritage Foundation to even white supremacist groups and militias like the Ku Klux Klan. What links them are their ideas on who should hold power and how that power should be exercised.


Below are the bills that they helped pass.



Our Legislative Agenda
Christian Coalition of America's Agenda
for the 110th Congress, Second Session (2008)
1. Confirming as many conservative judges as possible, especially U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges
The Democrat-controlled 110th Congress is way behind the average confirmation rate of U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' nominees for a Congress controlled by the President's opposition party. President George W. Bush ignored the threats of New York Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer -- who said that no conservative judges would be confirmed by the United States Senate controlled by the Democrats, 51-49, which began last January -- and sent conservative nominees for the federal courts to the Senate. Thus far, the Democrat Senate, playing politics, has confirmed only 6 nominees to the U.S. Circuit Court, with the 6th judge confirmed in late December. Normally, the Senate confirms 17 circuit court judges nominated by a president of the opposition party. The Democrat Congress is woefully short in doing their job of confirming President Bush's nominees. Christian Coalition of America will fight to confirm conservative judges during the second session of the 110th Congress sent to the Senate by President Bush and to hold the Senate accountable to the American people.
2. Passing "Net Neutrality" to ensure fairness for all on the Internet
A "Net Neutrality" provision to ensure fairness for all people on the Internet, including for grassroots groups such as Christian Coalition of America, was not passed in the 109th Congress. There is a better possibility that "Net Neutrality" on the Internet will pass in the 110th Congress. "Net Neutrality" is an issue extremely important to America's grassroots organizations and to those Americans who want to ensure the cable and phone companies controlling access to the Internet will not discriminate against groups like Christian Coalition of America. It is anticipated that the Democrat-controlled Congress will agree with the position of the previous Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman, James Sensenbrenner, and pass a "Net Neutrality" bill during the 110th Congress. If "Net Neutrality" legislation does not pass, consumers will have to pay an additional fee to have a website. The cable/telephone monopoly will be dividing the Internet into a "fast track" and "slow track." Our grassroots, who cannot afford the additional fees, will have to be on the slow track, which will mean that many of our websites will be passed by because the general public will not have the patience to go on the "slow track". In addition, if a member of the Board of Directors with an Internet Service Provider (cable/telephone monopoly) does not like Christian Coalition of America or the ACLU's emails, they can and will block our emails from going out over their server. The Senate telecom bill -- as it was written in the last Congress -- will harm Christian Coalition of America and other grassroots groups from getting our message out. We cannot let the cable/telephone monopoly control the Internet and content.
3. Protecting television religious programming
The issue of protecting television religious programming includes the important issue of "Multicast/Equal Access" (formerly called "Multicast/Must-carry.") Passing such legislation will go a long way to preventing discrimination against religious broadcasters. Without a "Multicast/Equal Access" law, the cable and satellite companies would probably not add new Christian channels and the influence of current Christian channels will be diluted.
4. Keeping votes for human embryonic stem cell destruction research bill to a minimum/increasing funding for successful adult stem cell research
Since last January when the Democrats took over Congress there have been numerous votes on human embryo stem cell destruction and President George W. Bush has prevented all of these bills from becoming law. In addition since last January, there have been astounding advances in adult stem cell research and stem cell research which should prevent any further human embryo destructive research, or at least wasteful public funding for such abominable research. There still is a majority of Members in the Democrat-controlled 110th Congress, in both the House and the Senate, for passage of a human embryonic stem cell destruction research bill. Christian Coalition will fight to keep the votes for future human embryo destruction bills down to as low as possible and to increase funding for adult stem cell research which has had successes with over 70 diseases, while human embryonic stem cell destruction research has had zero successes. President Bush vetoed at least 2 human embryo destruction bills this past year.
5. Ensuring all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts enacted into law and due to expire in just 2 years (2010) are protected including child tax credits, income tax cuts, small business tax cuts, death tax cuts, etc.
Christian Coalition of America helped President George W. Bush pass his legislation that would lower federal taxes for virtually every family in America by a total of $1.3 trillion, a bill which passed by a large bipartisan margin in the 107th Congress. In the 108th Congress, Christian Coalition helped pass a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives which would make these tax cuts permanent. The Christian Coalition fought in the 108th, 109th Congress and in the first session of this 110th Congress to at least extend these tax cuts until Congress voted finally to make these necessary tax cuts permanent. This is a top goal of Christian Coalition of America in the 110th Congress. Partly because the Democrat Congress has refused to make these tax cuts for all American families and small businesses permanent, the economy is beginning to show signs of weakness. Indeed, new tax cuts -- in addition to these tax cuts which have not as yet been made permanent -- will have to be enacted by the 110th Congress and Christian Coalition of America will work hard to achieve this.
6. Attempting to get a vote on a Federal Marriage Amendment
The Marriage Protection Amendment, the constitutional amendment banning homosexual "marriages" received 236 votes in the House of Representatives in the 109th Congress, an increase of several votes in the United States House of Representatives from the previous vote in the 108th Congress. Unfortunately, only 49 Senators, all Republicans except one, voted for the constitutional marriage amendment in the Senate in 2006. However, Christian Coalition state chapters are doing a tremendous job in passing state constitutional amendments banning homosexual "marriage." Thus far, 27 states have voted for, by an average vote of 70%, state constitutional amendments including 7 more states in 2006. It is expected that when Arizona voters -- the only state ever which defeated such an amendment (a too complex and flawed amendment) -- have an opportunity to vote on a simple amendment banning homosexual "marriage," it will pass overwhelmingly like the amendments passed in the 27 states which have already passed such amendments. Florida voters will undoubtedly ban homosexual "marriages" when they vote this November 4th on Florida's state constitutional amendment. It is just a matter of time before the citizens of Massachusetts vote overwhelmingly to rebuke 4 radical Massachusetts judges and their liberal counterparts in the Massachusetts legislature and to ban the abominable practice of homosexual "marriages" in the state of Massachusetts, the only state where judicial dictators have forced such "marriages" on its citizens. It is expected that more states, besides Florida, will have constitutional amendments on their state ballots during the 2008 presidential election cycle and all of these are expected to pass overwhelmingly in addition to bringing out new pro-family voters in the presidential election. Christian Coalition of America will continue to grow votes in both the House and the Senate for a federal constitutional amendment banning homosexual "marriage."
7. Supporting legislation stopping religious discrimination against evangelical Christians in the military
Even though a federal court during October 2006 dismissed gadfly Mikey Weinstein's infamous lawsuit which accused the United States military of promoting Christianity, he filed yet a new lawsuit less than two months later, wasting American taxpayer dollars yet again. He is trying to force the Pentagon into wasting more time to check into his allegations. Undoubtedly, another federal court judge will strike down his latest exercise in futility and harassment of Christians in the United States military. Christian Coalition of America will fight to ensure that evangelical Christian military chaplains and other personnel are not discriminated against as they have been during the past number of decades. In the closing weeks of the 109th Congress, Republican congressional leaders got involved in this culture war and forced the Navy and the Air Force to repeal regulations the two services had adopted earlier this year which forbade military chaplains from praying in the name of Jesus during military functions other than worship services. The provision agreed to on September 25, 2006 by the House and Senate conferees debating the final Defense Authorization bill rolls back the current Air Force and Navy regulations which had overturned 200+ years of tradition allowing military chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus and according to their faith requirements. The Air Force had adopted restrictive guidelines on February 9, 2006 and the Navy had adopted similar restrictive guidelines on February 21, 2006. The Air Force and Navy had surrendered to atheist activists and left-wing Members of Congress in adopting these ill-advised regulations. According to the September 25, 2006 agreement signed by the House and Senate conferees, the Secretary of the Air Force must reinstate the policy that was set forth in Air Force Directive 52-1 dated 1 July 1999 and the Secretary of the Navy must reinstate the policy set forth in Secretary of Navy Instruction 1730.7B dated October 12, 2000.

And that's a good point... we have maybe 6-10 Christians that visit this forum on a regular basis, they represent mostly Catholic, Quaker, Mormon, Orthodoxy, non-demoninational, and probably a few others that I'm not aware of or have missed (anglican?). That's a lot of different faiths there... still, no Falwell/Robertson supporters that I'm aware of.

The US's largest denomination is Catholic by a long shot. Almost twice the membership of all the Protestant denominations put together.

Yeah thats in here but otside of the safety of this forum these people excist just because you do not agree with them does not make then any less of a threat.

I didn't expect anyone to read all of this but I was hoping that some of you might breeze though some of it check this out.



If a member of the Board of Directors with an Internet Service Provider (cable/telephone monopoly) does not like Christian Coalition of America or the ACLU's emails, they can and will block our emails from going out over their server. The Senate telecom bill -- as it was written in the last Congress -- will harm Christian Coalition of America and other grassroots groups from getting our message out. We cannot let the cable/telephone monopoly control the Internet and content.


In other words they will find a way to get their message out to you even if you don't care to see it,hear it, OR read it.

Any particular reason you didn't quote the rest of my post? I thought it was relevent to seeing the whole picture.

MissMelsWell, I respect your opinions, but I disagree on this point. I live near atlanta and religion is pretty in-your-face.

While it's not as open as heavily LDS areas, there's a lot of random inappropriate "witnessing" that people are encouraged to do. I've been to wal-mart maybe 30 times in my life - I've been approached walking through the parking lot of wal-mart on 4 separate occasions by 4 different people who wanted to tell me about the joy of jesus. Now, I'd be the first to admit I probably look like someone who isn't religious (cops hate me on sight also), but even if I had a pentagram tattooed on my forehead and wore a black robe everywhere, it still wouldn't be right for someone I don't know to walk up to me and start a conversation with, "Hi, I just wanted to take a sec to talk about your relationship with the lord.".

Also, there's huge hypocrisy in the atmosphere of small companies where religion is concerned.

I worked for a company that did telecom work for hospitals. I enjoyed some nonverbal flirting with cute nurses on occasion. Don't misread me - I'm talking innocent things like giving each other those little half-smiles and checking back to see if you could catch the other person checking you out, harmless stuff. Never spoke, touched, or apporached any of them. Like I said: harmless stuff - also, before anybody asks, only did this sort of thing when it was someone I thought was attractive when I noticed THEM doing it first.

Anyway, the owner of the company was a friend of mine. He asked me not to play with the girls because he felt it was unprofessional and inappropriate. I didn't really agree, but it's not like I was pursuing them, so I stopped. I could see how someone might feel such play was unprofessional.

Some time after this, the company hired a guy who walked around with a mini-bible sticking out of his back pocket. This guy would walk around the hospitals on his phone saying things like, "That satan better leave my momma alone!!! I'll rebuke him and chop him to pieces with the lord's word!!". Not only would he say things like this, he wouldn't use his "inside voice" when doing so. Eventually, I got to the point that I just forbade him from talking on his phone in the hospital, which really was unfair, but sometimes you could see people look up in response to his tirades from 50 feet down the hall. Then, one day, I see him walk up to a guy IN THE HOSPITAL and ask him if he went to church. I sent him out to the van on some goose chase to get him away without causing a scene. When I tell the company owner about the incident and ask whether he wants me to talk to him or would he prefer to do it himself, he looks at me and says, "Talk to him about what?".

I'm like, "Well, don't you think it's unprofessional for him to be on a job representing your company trying to convert people?"

He tells me, "He's a good guy. He's just strong in his faith. Y'know, sometimes I envy that. I wish I had the confidence to do that."

This floored me because I thought it was about professionalism, but that didn't seem to apply when dealing with religion.

PS - I eventually quit the company when they put "COMPANY NAME - a Christian company" on MY business cards

I doubt if they would waste there time in here so I took responded to the part of your thread that I needed too

Americans are so religious because a lot of the people who went there were pilgrims and missionaries to convert the natives to Christianity. Which in some cases was a waste of life as one expedition of pilgrims did something really ignorant. The half-witted pilgrims brought 70 pairs of shoes and therefore starved and died.

My girlfriend lives in the US, so I go there often, and yes, it is a religious country.
"In God we trust" on every dollar bills pretty much proves it.
I even had a lot of problems getting to know her family, since I'm atheist and they're not.
And believe me, a lot of them are like that, if they know you're not religious they'll barely talk to you.
I'm Canadian, but I know what I'm talking about, I've spent months there, and I know a lot of people with families like that.
It's not a bad country, it's better than most people think, I just wish religion wasn't everywhere.

I know I don't live in America, so my comment might not count too much, but before I came onto UM I had never even heard of Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. Tele-evangelists just don't exist out here - not in a meaningful way, at least.

My ex-husbands family turned the cold shoulder on me when they realised they couldn't convert me.(Baptists)

And they really hated me because i didn't baptize my son. I feel he can/should decide for himself.

My son didn't want to continue to go to church with them all though I allowed it and they blamed this on me too, I guess for brainwashing him with reason/aka devil's education.

They also snubbed me because I danced topless as a showgirl in Vegas while I put myself through school and supported my son.

Yeah, they were a tolerant bunch.

I'm sorry but the most intolerant folks I have met have been the religious/christian bunch.

I knew what I was going to post until I read that.


Then my brain blank out.

Got to do what you got to do.

America is a religious country and it hasn't done us a lot of good. It has created a lot of hate and intolerance. I don't vote for politicians who tout their religion as a reason to vote for them. Most them are just phonies anyway. I don't know why it is like that.