Assuming Christianity

It’s happened to me a few times recently. I was at a community event that a lot of members of my town attend. There was this really nice lady there who took an interest in some project I was doing, and she decided to invite me to join her Sunday worship service. Apparently, she and several other ladies in the town get together on Sundays to sing hymns and worship Jesus. I politely said I might think about it, then let it go after she left.

Cross

I’ve lived in this area for a long time now, and I’ve never had problems with the local Christian population. They leave me alone and I leave them alone, and everyone is happy. Well, this is how it has been for the last twenty or so years, until this year.

The other day I attended a child’s birthday party. Two guests came in an struck up a conversation with me. They knew me, because we had met before, and they began talking about things that have nothing to do with this article. At some point, though, the husband asked me if I played the piano. I said I did not. He said this was too bad, because they were looking for a piano player at their church.

I didn’t have the heart to tell this guy that I am not Christian and I’d never come to his church. Instead, I changed the subject to something else. Fortunately he let it go there.

But this was not the last incident. I attended a meeting run by a railroad passengers’ association. The hosts handed out the schedule for the meeting, which included a benediction. I had to wonder what this was doing in the schedule of a secular subject, but soon found out.

Some pastor came out and started leading a prayer with the whole room. This prayer included a statement that everyone in the room believed in Jesus and was willing to serve “him” to the best of their ability.

I carefully checked the name of the organization. Nowhere did it say it was a Christian-led group, nor was anything else in the meeting related to Christianity. No, it was just a pastor making assumptions about his audience.

I’ve run into it on the job, too. People are always inviting me to church, or quoting the Bible as if I know what they’re talking about, or trying to say things that relate to both of us as Christians. They have no idea they are standing beside an atheist.

I could go over several other instances where I have been assumed to be Christian, but there are enough of them to fill a book. The last time I checked, though, this was not a Christian nation, it celebrated religious freedom. Christians have their right to practice their religion, and I have a right not to follow it.

When the Pilgrims came to North America, they were looking for freedom from the Church of England. Then came the British, who took over the territory and, in some areas, forced people to go to church under penalty of law. This was one of the big reasons that separation of church and state was adopted by the Founding Fathers.

And while we’re on the subject of the Founding Fathers, let’s pitch this idea that they were all Christians right into the garbage. Most of them were deists. This means that, while they believed in God, they didn’t necessarily believe in Jesus. Deists generally believe that God created the universe but no longer interferes in its affairs, which is a far cry from the Christian belief system.

Don’t sit there and tell me this is a Christian nation. There was another jerk out there who made this assumption. He was convinced he was fighting a holy war between Christians and Muslims and outright declared this nation Christian. I wanted to punch him across the face, and not just because he engineered 9/11. You know who I'm talking about, and you don't want to sound like him.

Take a look at the First Amendment, something that I’ve noticed a lot of people don’t understand. It says the following: “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.”

Let’s look at the first part of that amendment carefully: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” These laws the Republican Party is trying to pass in favor of Christianity? Yeah, they’re illegal. You can’t force someone to be Christian or follow Christian doctrine in the United States. I’m surprised that no one who is fighting against these laws hasn’t quoted this first line in the Bill of Rights.

But we’re not talking about politics, we’re talking about the idea of assuming Christianity. How are the two related? Simple: because certain types of Christians and religious extremists, mostly the extreme conservative types, assume that this is a Christian nation and, therefore, everyone in it must be some type of Christian.

Have you ever heard that saying: “To assume is to make an ass out of you and me?” Well, that is not the case here. To assume makes an ass out of you alone. If you have a problem with this, perhaps you should become more familiar with that First Amendment. While you are at it, you might want to give the rest of the Bill of Rights and Constitution a crack. We do not live in a theocracy, and I will fight tooth and nail before I ever see this country become one.

You may think this article is anti-Christian, but it is not intended to be. There are a lot of cool Christians out there that I don't have a problem with. As the Bill of Rights states, you have the right to practice your Christian beliefs. However, when those beliefs start to intrude on the beliefs of others, you have a problem.

So yeah, this is far more serious than just some person trying to get me to come to their church. It's a symptom of a far worse problem that this country is facing. Extreme Christians have become the Romans of our day. How long is it going to be before they start crucifying people for not following along?