Survey on Religion

A survey by the Pew organization on the religious opinions of Americans has been in the news recently. It showed around seventy one percent of American adults identifying themselves as Christians (representing a decline in the last few years), about twenty three percent of adult Americans identifying themselves as not affiliated with any religious organization (representing an increase in the last few years), around two percent identifying themselves as Jews, less than one percent each identifying as Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, and the rest a mixture of  followers of all other religions and people who did not answer the question.

This poll has led to some consternation among people who believe America should be a Christian nation and some rejoicing among people who believe it should not. Besides the religious controversy, there has been a political one over the same data. Some conservatives have worried that this trend imperils the viability of America as a free republic.  They  first should notice that only around thirty  percent of the unaffiliated listed themselves as atheists or agnostics. The rest may be presumed to be people who believe a god while not believing  the doctrines of Christian theology, that is people who traditionally have been called deists ( in the very broad sense of that term). Since  some version of deism (again in the broad sense) was the religion of Paine, Jefferson,  Franklin,  and probably Washington and Lincoln, conservatives would  have a hard task in presenting   it convincingly  as un-American or incompatible with the nation’s traditions.

There is a more important error with these concerns, however. There is no reason to believe atheists, agnostics, or followers of non-Christian religions cannot be committed to the values and liberties of the republic, and  there is no reason to believe all Christians will be committed to those values and liberties.  Evidence has shown that neither assumption is close to  true. We should follow the wisdom and guidance of the wisest founding fathers and view people’s religion as a private matter separate from their political lives and beliefs. A friend of liberty is a friend of liberty, irrespective of his opinions on religion, and an enemy of liberty is and enemy of liberty, irrespective of his.