{"id":394,"date":"2009-01-24T16:36:03","date_gmt":"2009-01-24T16:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/are-unbelievers-americans-too.html"},"modified":"2009-01-24T16:36:03","modified_gmt":"2009-01-24T16:36:03","slug":"are-unbelievers-americans-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/are-unbelievers-americans-too.html","title":{"rendered":"Are Non-Believers Americans Too?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It looks like Obama was a bit too inclusive last Tuesday when he included non-believers in his inaugural address:<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

“For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.”\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When he said non-believers, a few people around me on the mall whooped with self-recognition and delight. \u00a0But not everyone is so happy. \u00a0Some of those who were glad that an\u00a0Evangelical\u00a0Christian was invited to give the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration<\/a> and insisted that Rick Warren should be “allowed” to say Jesus (as if anyone were going to tell him he couldn’t) seem to be upset that non-believers are also welcome within Obama’s vision for America.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Melinda Hennenberger reports this development on AOL\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

With that one line, the president “seems to be trying to redefine American culture, which is distinctively Christian,” said’ Bishop E.W. Jackson of the Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Va. “The overwhelming majority of Americans identify as Christians, and what disturbs me is that he seems to be trying to redefine who we are.'”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Rev. Cecil Blye, pastor of More Grace Ministries Church in Louisville, Ky., said the president’s reference to nonbelievers also set off major alarm bells for him. “It’s important to understand the heritage of our country, and it’s a Judeo-Christian tradition,”‘ period.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh, we are back to this stamping of the foot and insisting “America is a Christian Nation” – with Jews being the honorable mention. \u00a0When this country was founded there were Christians, Jews, Muslims,(some of whom had been brought over as African slaves), Native Americans \u00a0and some folks whose Christian faith Bishop Jackson and Rev. Blye would probably not recognize – \u00a0including Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
America has the possability to show the world that people of different faiths – and no faith – can live peacefully \u00a0together in a truly pluralistic society. \u00a0The time of us being a nation defined by one religion is over. \u00a0We are meant to be the beacon on the hill of a new kind, one that has many different lights that stand with\u00a0integrity\u00a0side by side and also shine beautifully together.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It looks like Obama was a bit too inclusive last Tuesday when he included non-believers in his inaugural address:\u00a0 “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.”\u00a0 When he said non-believers, a few people around me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-in-the-public-square"],"yoast_head":"\nAre Non-Believers Americans Too? - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/are-unbelievers-americans-too.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are Non-Believers Americans Too? - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It looks like Obama was a bit too inclusive last Tuesday when he included non-believers in his inaugural address:\u00a0 “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}