A Christian Country?

When someone says, “This is a Christian country,” what exactly do they mean? They never really explain.
Do they mean that in this country the majority of people claim to be Christians, and that means it’s a Christian country? Does it subtract from the count if a large number of these folks talk a good line but don’t really behave as Christians? Are any “Christian” denominations not considered real Christians by other denominations? If so, should their numbers be subtracted?
If the numbers are reduced to the point where Christians are slightly below fifty percent, does America cease to be a “Christian country”? More than fifty percent of the people in America are women. Does that make it a “Feminine Country”? Caucasians are presently the majority; is this a “white country”? Before long whites will be a minority; will that make it a “Country of Color”?
Maybe when someone says, “This is a Christian country,” they aren’t talking about numbers. Maybe they mean it was founded on Christian principles. But that doesn’t hold up; Jesus taught, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” but our “founding fathers” owned slaves, and kept the vote for themselves while refusing it to men without property, to women, and to slaves.
Maybe when someone says, “This is a Christian country,” they aren’t talking about the nation’s foundations. Maybe they mean that since 1776 Christian principles have come to control governmental policy and societal behavior. Well, that doesn’t hold up too well either.
Women, men without property, and descendents of slaves still face
discrimination - very often from self-described Christians. In addition, although Jesus first appears in the New Testament and preaches a new way: forgiveness, turning the other cheek , and seeking one’s reward in heaven; today’s “Christian conservatives” cling to the Old Testament, advocating its “eye for an eye,” its hatred of gays, its bloodthirsty aggression, and – perhaps most illustrative – they vehemently support capitalism and the personal accumulation of wealth – concentrating on the rewards of this world – not those of the next.
Maybe when someone says, “This is a Christian country,” they are just talking to hear themselves speak. It wouldn’t be the first time. Jesus was used as an excuse for expansionist adventures during the Crusades. European explorers crucified Native Americans in the name of Jesus. British missionaries beat Africans to convert them. Victorians claimed that wealth and poverty resulted from God’s pleasure and wrath, respectively (not unlike Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell’s explanation of the attack on the twin towers).
I don’t think this is a Christian country. I think it’s a country where a vocal minority of fearful, hateful, rationalizers like to salve their consciences and silence their critics by claiming an association that is entirely fictitious.