Religion in America

Religion

There is a rather complex juxtaposition between the ideals of the founding of the United States and the presumption of religious conversion. The historical and sociological paradigm of religion in America actually spans the great migration of tribes from Asia over the Alaskan land bridge and evolved into various Native American cultures and the European contact between the early 1600s and even into the 20th century. Most of the Amerindian cultures worshiped a naturalistic religion that focused on harmony with nature, a group of Gods that represented spirits of parts of nature, and ways to explain all the natural phenomenon (weather, birth, death, etc.) that are common to human cultures. Religion was more all-encompassing and an approach to explain the universe. Since everything within the universe was part of the natural order, and therefore sacred, these cultures tended to revere all that was in nature and placed humans as Guardians who had the responsibility to revere Mother Earth.

With European contact, however, the situation became more complex. Now cultures were in conflict with one another. For example, Dutch Missionary, John Megapolensis, writing about the Iriquois tribe in 1644, noted, "They are entire Strangers to all Religion, but they have a & #8230; Genius which they put in the Place of God… but present Offerings to the Devil… They have otherwise no Religion. . . (Lippy). Yet imagine, if you will, the confusion that Amerindian cultures might have when confronted with the notion that their Gods and Spirits were false, and this new religion, posited by strangers to their lands, was the only correct path? For instance, a Huron tribesman noted to a French Jesuit missionary in 1635, "You tell us fine stories, and there is nothing in what you say that may not be true; but that is good for you who come acorss the seas. Do you not see that, as we inhabit a world so different from yours, there must be another heaven for us, and another road to reach it?" (Lippy).

Part 2 -- The concept of the separation of Church and State has often been thought to be part of the original Founding Father's perception of religion and part of the Constitution. Essentially, this phrase means that there is a Constitutional mandate that there will be no State religion, and that the sociological roles often attributed to religion will, in fact, be manages by the State. This ideal, formulated by Enlightenment thinker John Locke, was part of the social contract between government and citizens which was used by the Founding Fathers to form and organize the new Republic. The intent was to protect the individual from the State requiring a certain religion, not to protect the State from religion -- an important distinction as the Republic grew.