I spent the last 5 days with Europeans at a conference at the Nicoluas Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. The conference was organized around the theme of creating peaceful coexistence in multi-religious societies. I gave a conference presentation and did media interviews with Polish state television, and Polish and Russian radio.
The predominant question interviewers posed to me referenced German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent statement that multiculturalism in Germany has failed. They asked: Do you think she is right? Is multiculturalism destined to fail?
Although multiculturalism is not destined to fail, Merkel is correct that it has failed in Germany, as it is failing in other mainland European countries, especially France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. It is failing because of the way these nations define their respective national identities – largely with reference to religion, ethnicity, language, race and culture.
Which is why recent findings by researchers at Purdue University present cause for concern. The scholars found that nearly half of Americans say being a Christian is central to being an American. The data shows that from 1996 to 2004, those who said Christian identity was a “very important” attribute of being an American rose from 38 to 49%.
This is not good.
Not because Christianity is a bad religion – it isn’t. Christianity has been at the source of much good that is part of American and world history.
Not because Christians in America are bad people – they aren’t. The vast majority of Christians in America, like most other groups here, are a diverse bunch of people who are good citizens and residents of our country, who make positive contributions in their communities and beyond.
Not because personal faith should be somehow “separated” from the larger political sphere. In addition to this being impossible at a human level, it seems clear from the historical record that our founders assumed the existence of a religiously vibrant populace who would make decisions for themselves and their communities holistically – which includes making decisions rooted in personal faith commitments.
The Purdue findings are not good because it means that half of the American people are becoming more European than American on issues of religious freedom and diversity.
America is not perfect; we have blind spots and shortcomings. But one thing we do better than any other nation in the history of the earth is accommodate religious freedom and diversity.
Our country was founded by people (yes, mostly Christians) who fled Europe for many reasons, chief among them, to escape the religious persecution of the European state churches (all Christian in variety) that wielded political, social and military power over them. America has never had a state church – the founders explicitly rejected such a notion. Moreover, the founding documents make no reference whatsoever to the Christian faith (or any specific faith), and speak of God in largely naturalist (philosophically deist) terms.
European state churches still exist, although they exert no political or military power now. Their influence is much more subtle, operating mostly at the level of culture and identity – which is why members of non-Christian religions in many European nations can live there for several generations and still not being considered fully “German” or “French” or whatever.
This is in sharp contrast to the way American identity has historically been defined, which is with reference to a certain set of principles about basic human rights, individual freedom, equality, the rule of law, and private property. Those who adhere to these principles, after going through the paperwork, can be full-blown Americans regardless of their religion, race, ethnicity, native language or culture. We have an integrative model in America, not an assimilationist model as in Europe.
America is a nation founded and largely populated by Christians. But America is not therefore – and I hope never will become – a nation where being a Christian is central to being considered an American.
To root American identity in any one religion is fundamentally anti-American. If and when that ever happens, we will have ceased being uniquely American and will have become just another variety of European.
And multiculturalism – which has worked well here for much of our history – will fail for us as it has in most of Europe.
