Is the USA a "Melting Pot" or a "Salad Bowl?"

February 19, 2023 / Kurt F. Stone

This past Valentine’s Day, PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute, which describes itself as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research at the intersection of religion, culture, and public policy,” issued a report on the astonishing growth of Christian Nationalist beliefs within the American political system . . . overwhelmingly so among conservative “MAGA” Republicans and Evangelicals. Researchers for PRRI found that more than half of Republicans polled believe that America should/must be a strictly Christian nation, either adhering to the ideals of Christian nationalism (21%) or sympathizing with those views (33%).

Christian nationalism is a worldview that claims that the U.S. is a strictly Christian nation and that the country's laws should, therefore, be rooted in Christian values. This point of view has long been most prominent amongst white Evangelicals, but of late, has been receiving a lot of lip service from non-Evangelical Republicans in general.

During an interview at a Turning Point USA event last August, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told the overflow audience that Republican Party leaders must of necessity become more responsive to the party’s base which, she claimed, is made up largely of Christian nationalists. And Ms. Taylor Greene, who is gaining media minutes with every passing day, is by no means the loudest voice in the pews advocating the ideals and political theology of Christian Nationalism within the public square. Whether they take the Bible literally - or go to church every Sunday, or publicly advocate living morally upright lives - is well beyond the point; they have found yet another cause by which they can capture the votes of otherwise under-educated, politically unsophisticated naïfs.

Over the past many years, members of Congress have offered up resolutions - and even a proposed Constitutional amendment - proclaiming that “America is a Christian nation.” Their arguments never seem to change: either, that the Founders ‘intended” America to be a Christian nation,” or citing Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer’s lead opinion in the 1892 case Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States. The first argument - that the Founders “clearly intended the United States to be a Christian Nation” can - and has been - easily disproven. Even before he became President, George Washington may have said it best, if not first: “Religious controversies are always more productive of acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.” President Jefferson denied that Jesus was “a member of the Godhead,” and Benjamin Franklin, a co-author of the Declaration of Independence with Jefferson, (and like him, a thorough-going Deist) decried Christian church services for promoting church memberships instead of “trying to make us good citizens.”
So far as the 1892 Supreme Court case, whose origin was an 1885 law called the Alien Contract Labor Law which prohibited “the importation and and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract . . . “, the Court ruled unanimously that the Church of the Holy Trinity was not in violation of the law and could indeed employ the services of an Anglican minister who had been brought to New York from England for the purpose of service to the congregation. What is still remembered and frequently cited from this case is one sentence in Justice David Josiah Brewer’s opinion: “These and many other matters which might be noticed add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.” Justice Brewer’s obiter dictum has come into question dozens upon dozens of times over the past 120+ years. And yet, it is still raised by Christian Nationalists to “prove” that their belief is settled law.

Over the past several years, one of the unlikeliest - and least comprehensible alliances has been that between Donald J. Trump and America’s Evangelical/Fundamentalist community. How and why such a rigorously pious swathe of America could lend so much support and so many dollars to a man who has evinced less moral fiber than any of his predecessors is beyond reason . . . except for the fact that preachers from Maine to Southern California have told their flock to do so. An article in last Thursday’s Rolling Stone authored by Tim Dickenson summed up this mystery . . . and the possible fall from “messiahship” for Trump in 2024: “White evangelical Christians are the beating heart of the GOP base. Perhaps the wildest feat of Trump’s political career was convincing the fundamentalist faithful that he — a philandering, thrice-married, “pussy” grabber — could advance the cause of Godliness in the White House. If this bloc were to lose faith in Trump, it could doom his dream of recapturing the GOP nomination.”

At this juncture, it would seem that the mantle of political Messiah is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ to lose. Throughout his time in office, he has increasingly risen within the ranks of Christian Culture Warriors - even without using too much overtly Christological language. His support for the removal of “immoral” books from school libraries; making the teaching of CRT (Critical Race Theory) in schools which do not even teach it a crime; decrying anything which even hints at “DEI” (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) studies in Florida schools from K through graduate level and leading the charge for restoring the death penalty (despite the fact that the Catholic Church - of which he is a member - is universally against it . . . mark him a man who is, by implication if not invocation, fighting hard to become the leader of the Christian Nationlist pack.

Then there is Nikki Hailey, former Governor of South Carolina and Ambassador to the United Nations, who announced her candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination just the other day. She had little to say about what she would do as POTUS, made not a single reference to her former boss by name, and spoke mainly about how difficult it was to be raised as the daughter of a Sikh family in small town South Carolina.

To my way of thinking, the most telling thing about her announcement came even before her she made her announcement. The invocation at the event was delivered by controversial pastor John Hagee, who Ambassador Haley told the crowd she wants to be like she when “grows up.” Hagee’s history of controversial statements includes remarks that a God-sent Adolf Hitler was tasked with hunting Jewish people as part of a divine plan to send them to Israel, that Hurricane Katrina “was God’s retribution for a planned gay pride parade” in New Orleans, and that women “are only meant to be mothers and bear children.” Speaking about the event, The Daily Show guest host Sarah Silverman (one of the best comedians/political satirists in the business!) mocked Haley’s praise of Hagee: ““Oh, Pastor Hagee, I hope one day I can appreciate Hitler as much as you do,” Silverman joked. “Right now my appreciation of Hitler is like here (she raises her hand). I want to get it up, get it up to about here,” she continued with a raised-hand salute. She concluded by saying “Sure, this guy thinks the Holocaust is good and that’s not good but on the bright side, he does believe it happened. You know, you got to take the Ws (“Wins”) where you can.”

Hagee’s comment about Hitler and G-d’s divine plan to “send them (the Jews) to Israel,” is one of the most horrifying aspects of the Christian fundamentalist rendering of the Bible. According to recent polling by LifeWay, upwards of 80% of evangelicals believed that the creation of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that would bring about the Second Coming . . . which means that anyone who has not accepted Jesus as their Messiah will be destroyed. To a great degree, this explains why the largest and most fervent Zionist groups in the United States are Christian . . . not Jewish. As a fairly knowledgeable and literate Jew, I could never support anyone who’s love of Israel is based on this revelation; if they succeed, we lose.

Christian Nationalism posits that America must be a Christian Nation, which entails one hell of a lot of conversion. To Jews, proselytizing and "spreading the 'Good News’ is about as foreign as ham and cheese on white bread. We Jews do not have an exclusive on G-d or salvation. Co (my pronoun for “he/she”) belongs to everyone, and everyone belongs to Co. In fact, Judaism is the only religion that offers specific commandments for nonmembers. Following the story of the Great Flood, G-d commanded Noah and his sons to keep seven basic laws. Judaism believes that any Gentile who keeps those laws is righteous and will go to heaven. Oh yes, Jews did go in for forced conversion once: there is one known case in which Jews (as a ruling power, which in itself is extremely rare) did in fact force gentiles to convert. This took place in the Maccabean era, around 168 BCE. A group called the Idumeans was forcibly converted by second generation Maccabees. However, the Idumeans’ ‘conversion’ was terribly ineffective. We learned our lesson; it doesn’t appear that the policy of forced conversion was popular with other Jewish zealots of the time and has never occurred since.

Let us get to the original question posed in the title of this essay: “Is the USA a “melting pot” or a “salad bowl.” According to Christian Nationalists it must be the former; according to American history it really should be the latter. For what is a “melting pot?” It is a place where a variety of peoples, cultures, or individuals assimilate into a cohesive whole. (n.b. the term itself comes from a very popular play written by the Victorian/Edwardian-era playwright and novelist Israel Zangwill. It tells the story of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, whose mother and sister were killed in a pogrom, hoped for a society free from ethnic divisions, and a refuge for all those suffering persecution for political or religious beliefs. Zangwill wrote, "America is God's Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming... Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Russians – into the Crucible with you all! God is making the American." The play was so popular and well-received that when it opened on Broadway in 1908, playwright Zangwill’s “date” was none other than President Theodore Roosevelt!)

For many generations, the “melting pot” theory worked pretty well. Although there were certainly racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian feelings, the immigrants themselves wanted nothing more than to become accepted as Americans . . . to melt into the social and cultural fabric of the new world. The melting pot provided America with a plethora of talent, skilled workers and new citizens. But alas, in recent times, the very concept of a “Melting Pot” has morphed into something akin to a multi-Christian nation. More and more, we have become a “Salad Bowl” - an entity which despite being a whole (a “salad”) is composed of innumerable ingredients whose individual shape, size and individuality can still be easily identified.

To my way of thinking, “Christian Nationalism” is not only unpatriotic; it is also un-American and grossly chutzpadik (Yiddish for nervy, impudent or brazen).

If I choose to live my life as an American citizen who observes the Sabbath on Saturday rather than Sunday, to read my holy books from right-to-left rather than left-to-right or stay the hell away from shellfish and cheeseburgers, that should be of no one’s concern. I am still a patriotic American; a (hopefully) noteworthy ingredient in the greatest salad ever created. For those who disagree on religious or cultural grounds know this: you are the minority . . . get used to it.

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