probably not. many would say its foriegn policy is certainly intolerant. but is this the cause of american’s religious undertones, or because america is a liberal nation?
books like huntington’s clash of civilizations and (insert author’s name here) bush at war suggest strongly that america is an extremly christian nation. certainly, the christian coalition is a major interest group at washington. but even in places like the bible belt, towns with only 24000 people will have at least 110 churches (i’m from a small-ish town in canada, we have about 120 000 people and 4 churches, 4). america is religious.
the bush administration, however, is quick to believe that that their intolerance is a product of liberalism. this is a quaint straussian idea. certainly, moder chrisitianity and liberlism share many of the same qualities – toleration being one of them. however, which one makes the country intolerant?
personally, i’m betting that a truly tolerant country would not be so religious. however, this might be self-defeating. i don’t know, any thoughts?
Well it depends on which part of America you’re talking about. Most Americans do believe in a god of some sort, but that doesn’t mean they don’t tolerate others’ beliefs. In most major cities people tend to accept one another’s differences (although someone may want to point out the LAPD and racial profiling as a counterexample). You were right though, small-town America tends to equate with small-minded America. But most Americans now live in the suburbs–where they’re close enough to the large population centers to see that not everyone thinks the way they do.