By Paul Lagan
Is America no longer a Christian nation? I don’t believe it is. I think America is populated by a society who, for the most part, fits into two categories: The atheists, agnostics, and mystics in one group, and those who claim the title of a Christian but not the definition in the other. Every so often I come upon a friend I have not seen for some time, and I am often surprised to find some of these people have lost their belief in God. The reason, they say, is they know people who claim to be Christians but do things that are terribly bad. My usual comment is, “these are not real Christians -- they only say they are.” But my friends have a point. There simply has to be an explanation why so many millions of people refer to themselves as Christians while the morals of America decline. So let me lay it on the line in the most basic of terms possible.
Obviously, not everyone who answers to being a Christian is, in fact a Christian, but there are guidelines by which we can discern. First of all, I am NOT discussing the word “Christian” as it applies to salvation. God is the sole judge of that. I am talking about identifying a person or a group of persons distinctively. In most dictionaries the word “identify” means “the set of behavioral traits by which an individual or a group is recognizable.” ...
