Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims in America

Although Protestantism does not appeal to me as a religion, I am grateful for its existence because only Protestants (broadly speaking) could have created the American Republic.  I think that Samuel Huntington's reading of America as a fundamentally Anglo-Protestant nation is correct. Protestantism is even more American than apple pie.

Catholics are (small) part of the American founding. One Catholic signed the Declaration and two participated in the Constitutional Convention and signed. Although few in number, from the somewhat pluralist viewpoint of 18th century Protestants (again, broadly speaking), Catholics, with their allegiance to Rome, were dangerous. After all what is a Protestant but someone who protests...against Rome? Even in Maryland, founded as a refuge for Catholics --and offering religious toleration for all Trinitarians--, their position was unsafe and they were eventually banned until the Revolution.

Aside from specifically theological differences, there was the bloody history of religious wars in Europe as well as the political power of the Catholic states to contend with. Protestant fear of Catholics was not mere fantasy. Over time, Catholics --especially later immigrants-- adapted to America and spilled enough blood in her defense to make them pretty mainstream. The theology was unchanged, but the idea of separating Church and State was never presented to me as anything but positive. The most I remember hearing to the contrary was that in traditionally Catholic countries it made sense for a closer connection, but not here.

My 1950's NY Irish Catholicism was very seamlessly patriotic. When I was a kid and at least through the early 70's, both the Papal flag and the American flag were standard items within the sanctuaries of Roman Catholic churches in the US. When Protestant ministers challenged John Kennedy about his religion in the 1960 campaign, the ministers were not accused of hate speech and Kennedy did not play the wounded victim. This was considered a valid question and he answered them in familiar American terms about the separation of private faith and public service.

The Americanizing of Jews is something I know less about. But aside from the process of assimilation, including the expectation that immigrants would become American, it was the vehicle of Reform Judaism that helped it. Beginning in 19th century Germany, this was an attempt to make it possible for Jews to function outside a religious ghetto, rather on the model of local Protestantism. Most significant was the relativization of halakah, the Jewish legal code which dominated all of life, and enforced separation of Jews from Gentiles, very much like Sharia. It was certainly a controversial move; to this day, in Israel, Reform Judaism has no status. But it let Jews have a place to go and become American and still be Jewish.

Islam is a child of both Judaism and Christianity. As a fully fledged kaffir, I deny the divine origin of Mohammad's project and see a lot of what he came up with as a mixture of these two faiths, both of which he had frequent contact with. In 7th century Arabia, along with a lot of pagans, were whole tribes of Jews and quite a few Christians. In shorthand, what I see as Islam's problematic shape is that it combined the Semitic sense of religion as an all-encompassing holy legal system and the Christian sense of ultimacy, with a missionary drive to convert the world. Sort of like a manic Hasid with a bad attitude and a gun.

Jews have a huge and ancient legal system. But, at least since the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD,  it is only for Jews. And Jews long ago gave up any enthusiasm for converting outsiders. Sort of like extraverted Amish. Jews certainly have major impacts on societies where they live, but it is never, to my knowledge, about imposing or even expanding Judaism as a religion*. Muslims also have a huge legal system, but it is a complete political system for everyone living under its influence, not just Muslims. In a Muslim-dominated country or culture, you are subsumed into it whether you like it or not. And Muslims have a distinct interest either in converting you to the One True Faith or making sure it is dominant in your life. Even with the loss of the Caliphate after WWI, they have not had a 70 AD to make them rethink things.

And that is a very big reason I am so hostile to Islam: it remains both expansionist AND theocratic. What is the likelihood that a serious movement to relativize or radically re-interpret Sharia could take off in Islam in the West? Even though neither Judaism nor Islam have a central authority like a Catholic Pope to make these kinds of decisions, the role of rabbis vs imams and the extent of Westernization within the religions are very different. I am not holding my breath, although the only kind of Islam I would not be so hostile to would be something along the lines of Reform Judaism.

Then I might believe that Muslims and America could mix. Til then, color me unconvinced.

*Unfortunately American Jews have been disproportionately helpful in the imposition and expansion of the secular faith of progressive liberalism.