(This is from a political conversation I recently had with a Mormon who wants to speak out about political prejudice against people of differing faiths.)
Let's face it. The public is led around by political buzz words and most of the time it is the MEDIA that invents these anti faith terms in the first place. If I were a Baptist, I might not agree with the Mormon founder Joseph Smith! But do I agree that the Mormons have a right to exist? Of course I do! But just because I will defend the followers of Joseph Smith and their right to worship, I don't have to be a Mormon to do that! Any thing less would be trampling on the Constitutional rights of others. I might argue the fact that Mormonism is or isn't a Christian faith, but it is the religious right that has to be protected.
On the other hand, a Religion that allows for human sacrifices? (an extreme example I know) I can't support that because it is murder sanctioned by a misguided Religious "Faith". And there might be some "Constitutional Issues" with the human to be sacrificed on the altar of ignorance. A little like making a public ceremony out of hanging black folks! I am sure if we looked hard enough we could find Americans that would have no problem hanging Blacks or Jews. But they are small remnant of the population, and yet these groups would look huge if you gave them the big media treatment. Much like the Programming America got after 9-11, we became convinced there was a Muslim under every city waiting to get us with their WMD's and were willing to allow a Republican President to set up the same Homeland Security that has now turned the enforcement gun toward we Americans!
So any political movement can easily be derailed using all these terms that Americans have been programmed & inundated with all these years. It is a basic Physiological trigger to dismiss anything in an auto dump mechanism. It is why we come to conclusions after reading two sentences of a two page post and dismiss the writer as being a "conspiracy theorist" and reply, blasting them into a public forum Hell!
So, we die alone on a politically exclusive island where only those of the "enlightenment" are allowed! And that includes me and my pets who have no political voice at all.
We may as well face it. We humans are a mess! We keep our opinions right there in the open where people can see them, just like the Pharisees wore their huge Phylacteries so everyone could see how religious they were. We wear the modern political equivalent on the rear bumpers of our car in the form of the Gadsden Flag or Secede stickers. It is what defines us, it is what makes us different. And we strive to be this "Political Maverick" because some media figure told us we should be a "Political Maverick"! It is what makes us superior to everyone else, we may as well proudly wear a sign around our neck that reads "Ask me about my humility"!
Can America be a county that is exclusively Christian? No way! But it needs the influence of the Christian faith because to be a Christian, you must first admit that you are a sinner. And to be a sinner means you must admit you are flawed. And to be flawed you must admit you may not know everything and are prone to make mistakes....like trampling on the rights of others. Like following men in women in nice clothing who tell us we must give up our rights in exchange for safety. Who tell us nothing can be done to put America back on the path of Constitutional Government.
