The introduction to “American Jesus” by Stephen Prothero was very interesting, and let to me to captivated, confused, and astounded. Some parts I agreed with him and other I strongly disagreed with him, I also found a lot of what he said as new information that I never knew about. The introduction did not began easily and there was no warm welcome with a greeting about Prothero or what he is going to tlak about in his book but instead it just dived right in and immediately began talking about and asking question about America and Jesus and how the two have integrated with each other and how in a modern society Jesus is still a big part of cultural and religion.
So much was immediately brought up in the very beginning of the introduction. Big question like is America a Christian country? I found it very interesting that here are political document from the past and present that state contradicting ideas, the America is a Christian nation and other documents stating that American is not a Christian nation. For me I know that Christianity is a very dominate and prominent in today’s society and I know that there are many different cultures here as well with people of different races from all over so, and with different races and cultures comes different religions so I found it quiet astonishing that even with all sort so differences here that the most prominent religion was still Christianity. Though the more I thought about it and after reading the rest of the introduction I began to realize that Prothero is probably right when he said Christianity is the biggest religion here in America and the most influential.
Prothero said that other religions get influences from Christianity and Jesus specifically and that these other religions rotate and move around Christian beliefs. After thinking about this I realized it was true that other religions operate around Christianity. For example, Christmas is a one day holiday on December 25th, that isn’t even the real birth date of Christ, but all schools in America and colleges/universities give the student several weeks off and days off before and after then. Though most school use this time as a winter break it still revolves around Christmas and other religions don’t get off for their holiday and if they do not nearly as long as a time off as Christian holidays. With Prothero already getting me to think critically about Christianity, Jesus and America I’m excited to read on and hear what else he has to say.
It was a quick sucker-punch of information. (From Boxer Jesus, haha) However, all relevant and interesting. My class discussion brings up several of your points that I hope will clear your confusion about the origins of our country and religious freedom, and moving forward into a time of endless Jesus.