Occasionally, I’m asked why I focus my religion-oriented writing toward Christianity. Do I have a specific animus towards Christians or their beliefs? Well, no to both. It’s really very simple: Christianity is the religion I came from and it’s the largest identified religion in the United States. By identified, I mean, most Americans identify as Christian, whether they actually practice it or not.

Other religious beliefs really don’t add up to much as to the total population. Believe it or not, out of a worldwide population of around 16 million, around 2% of Americans are Jewish. Followers of Islam are a tiny 1.2%, and Hindus and Buddhists are each right at 1% of the population. What’s surprising is the number of Muslims is so small. Based on what we hear from our government about the threat of Radical Muslims, I would have thought their representation in this country would be a couple of points higher.

With the majority being one belief it makes sense that they would have sway over our politics and culture. The problem is that we are inundated with cultural conservative ideas of Christianity and listen t those that espouse those socially puritan in nature. But believe it or not, there are those that say they are Christian believers, even devout, that don’t hold the same cup of conservative values that the majority (as far as we know) do. so, many Christians I know can’t believe that there are others that claim to be believers that are not carbon copies of themselves.

But then, if that were to be true, there would only be a single church, one denomination, because everyone would read the scriptures exactly the same. They don’t. Relatives on one side of my family attended a denomination that didn’t believe having music in services. Yes, they still sang, Acappella. Others don’t believe in dancing. Some believe in the gifts of the spirit. So we can see, and actually choose, like a menu, the place to go to church that fits our personal belief system the best. That’s not a beat down, just a simple observation.

I do have a few volumes on some of the other religious beliefs and I’ve decided to wade back through them (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism) to understand them a bit more and possible do some caparisons here with christianity. I think I may be surprised (a friend told me) how shallow Christianity is to some of these.