American Liberal and Conservative Christianity

I would make a few observations about Christianity in America based on my intuition and observation. I admit to providing no tightly reasoned argument, although I suspect I could make one in a long essay or series of essays if I wanted to expend my energy in that direction.

I see American Christians divided into two groups: Liberal Christians and Conservative Christians.

Both camps share a common belief that their religion instructs them about god and the meaning of life.

The Conservative Christians add many things to that core belief. They believe the Bible is a science textbook, a history textbook, and a secular political manifesto akin in kind, but not in spirit to Marx’s Communist Manifesto.

Liberal Christians do not add these additional elements to their faith.

I would add a couple of other observations. America has always been a country of religious beliefs. Accusations that America has been controlled either intellectually or politically by secular humanists have no basis in fact. Surveys show that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe in god and have some sort of religious faith, and always have throughout American history.

The leaders who founded America by and large were Liberal Christians, not Conservative Christians. Recent attempts to claim the contrary have been refuted by the biographies of the founders.

I will not make any normative assertions about which camp may have it right nor draw any conclusions about how it might explain the current political environment.

However, I have a hunch that I will be doing that in the future because I think it explains a lot. Those who claim that I have already introduced normative assumptions into my observations may be correct, but I am not willing to concede the point without further thought and investigation.