We must remember that we live in a very unusual, experimental and even strange country where we cannot have every cultural trapping as we might like it. We must remember that the founders of the US made separation of Church and State in order to protect freedom of religion, which is a very noble goal, and it must be admitted that this has worked extremely well so far. We must remember that this is not a Christian country, though we imagine it to be, it is EVERYONE'S country, ideally, and haven to every religion. Whatever we need to do to protect all noble forms of religious worship should be our primary goal here. If you want to live in a "Christian" country, you will have to move to one.

Now the question this puts before us all, and which we must continually debate in the public square is, do we like what America is, does it make us more comfortable or free as humans, or does it degrade us in some way? Is it really healthy to have a somewhat generic religious environment, where the state promotes general worship of God, but does not reflect the depth and truth of the Christian vision of man? The biggest risk of the "separation" system is if the state eventually abandons or turns against God or religion in general. We need to acknowledge that religion, of whatever form, lies underneath all human cultural systems, and to abandon it will only bring very violent (i.e. blindly religious) social upheaval. This is the greatest danger of the Amerian system, and the one thing we must most avoid.

But presuming the government assiduously promotes the protection of religion in general, then I say we must accept the greater movement of history while it can be sustained - cultures tend to be melting pots which ebb and flow with many spiritualities passing through them. Certainly America is a cultural movement greater than any one spirituality. Also, Christianity (in it's purest form) is a very particular, specific and even demanding belief system, which challenges us to rise above physical life, and even value our physicality as sacrifice-able. Realistically, we cannot expect the bulk of humanity to practice it. We can challenge others to some form of Christian understanding, but we must be happy to allow the bulk of humanity to worship as they can. The world is deep and wide and cannot be pigeon-holed into a single denomination, however right or true it is, and we would be much less balanced for it.

Better that we at least have a Festivus pole, even many thousands of different Festivus poles in every neighborhood, which allow many unique ways of healing and reconciliation to our neighbor, God, and ourselves. If that's what it takes in America to sustain personal and communal spiritual health, then so be it. All states and societies invent their own compensatory rituals, and so should we. Perhaps the Christian contribution could be to keep any such practices from getting selfish, absurd, perverse or anti-growthful, in other words, keep them sincere and meaningful and reflecting the true dignity of man and God. Any such helpful or growthful personal, psychological or spiritual ritual is a Christian ritual, or one that Christians can support.

"Christianity" is not the goal of life, and Christians must remember to keep their limited place in the greater perspective of global history. Reconciliation to self, neighbor and God is the goal of life, and Christianity is one way to that among many. Even if it is the most true and perfect way, much of the world can never realistically be expected to follow it. The real challenge of Christianity therefore is to be able to contain, acknowledge and sanction all ways to God within its vision (that is "catholicism"). What we will resist are any ways which intentionally lead to denigration of the person, God, our neighbor, or our self.

Perhaps, ultimately, we will produce a uniquely American religion. Rome did not, but it allowed all denominations to flourish within it's borders, most of the time. Or perhaps the noble but difficult and somewhat inhuman ideal of Separation of Church and State will eventually fall to denominational warring and political scapegoating. Affluence allows great freedoms which loss of affluence can no longer support. America finally seems to be heading into a time of less egregious affluence, perhaps alot less. So perhaps our somewhat esoteric ideals will soon fall to "the worse angels of our nature". We must allow history and culture to flow as the body of humanity needs it to, and can bear at any given time. Christianity is here to serve humanity, humanity is not here to serve Christianity.