does the US have any religious heritage?

[pstokely]

?

[Must_B_Free]

1. This country is inhabited by saints, sinners, and Beechers

http://www.piney.com/RMNoSo.html

"The common view was that Southern free labor competing with hired labor in the North was an evil which God would destroy but the sword would be in the hands of unsure men pushed by radical women and male religionists who saw political control as the will of God."

If the southern "free laborists" had not been defeated, would competition between have eventually arrived at modern day corporatism, anyway?

Seems like people are just indentured servants to the system now anyway.

[LearnedHand]

3. Weren't the ORIGINAL settlers...

...the Puritans, a radical, fundamentalist christian group? And weren't they seeking to escape the watchful eye of the Church of England?

[IndianaGreen]

2. The Holy Crusades

America was founded on faith-based racism. Read the original text of the US Constitution and see how people of color were described as fractions of white people.

America expanded Westward on a Holy Crusade to spread its racism to the continent. America stole land that did not belong to us, and murdered hundred of thousands people of color to achieve her aims.

The process has continued to the present day.

[roughsatori]

4. You mean like the Shakers, Quakers, Christian Science, Buddhism?

You could google "The Great Awakening," and the "Salem Witch Trials" for some interesting history. The history of Christianity in the US is fascinating and complex, ie: The Bible was used as a justification of slavery; yet the pulpits of churches became the mouthpiece for the civil rights movement in the South.

I guess the best answer is: America has many Religious Heritages (note the plural) some inspiring and others better looked at as a warning.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Yeah...

The Great Awakenings should be required reading. The Framers understood the power of religious revivals and revolutions, and tried to make sure this was a secular state.

We are largely a Protestant Christian country, but that is only by default, not by design or intent. And the various Protestant sects were as often at each others' throats as they were at Jews, Roman Catholics, and the various heathens that wandered in. Or were originally here.

The Puritans, btw, hung Quakers for sport.

[OldCurmudgeon]

6. sure!

There's "The Great Spirit", and of course "Coyote".

But my favorite is Pele. Don't mess with Pele! She can give you a world of hurt.

Or did you mean those Johnny-come-lately xtians?

[knight_of_the_star]

8. Or as He is known in Ohio among the Shawnee

Washaa Monetoo (not sure on the spelling, but that IS how you say it). Yeah, America has a HUGE religious heritage, it just doesn't fit what the monoetheist xtains like. They also say their thing is Europe's religious heritage (what about all those centuries of PAGANS).

[Aaron]

7. FWIW - Treaty of Tripoli

Article 11:

"the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion"

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary/bar1796t.htm

So maybe otherwise yes, but legally with regard to the government - and the christian religion - no.