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<div><b style="font-family: 'courier new', monospace; "><div class="yiv224086558print_path" style="display: inline !important; "><a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/11/29/are_evangelicals_a_national_security_threat/singleton">http://www.salon.com/2011/11/29/are_evangelicals_a_national_security_threat/singleton</a></div>
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<div class="yiv224086558container_12"><span class="yiv224086558postHeader"><span class="yiv224086558localtime">Tuesday,
Nov 29, 2011 6:50 PM UTC<span class="yiv224086558localtime-thetime
yiv224086558hide">2011-11-29T18:50:00Z</span><span class="yiv224086558localtime-format
yiv224086558hide">l, M j, Y g:i A
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<h1 id="yiv224086558entry-title-single" class="yiv224086558entry-title
yiv224086558headline yiv224086558lg">Are
evangelicals a national security
threat?</h1>
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<h2 class="yiv224086558deck">A new
poll suggests that American
Christians (unlike Muslims) are
likely to put their faith before
their country</h2>
<div class="yiv224086558meta
yiv224086558clearfix"><span class="yiv224086558byline"><font color="#999999">By David Sirota</font></span>
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<div> (Credit:
iStockphoto/sjlocke) </div>
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<div>If you have the stomach to
listen to enough right-wing talk
radio, or troll enough right-wing
websites, you inevitably come upon
fear-mongering about the
Unassimilated Muslim. Essentially,
this caricature suggests that
Muslims in America are more loyal
to their religion than to the
United States, that such allegedly
traitorous loyalties prove that
Muslims refuse to assimilate into
our nation and that Muslims are
therefore a national security
threat.</div>
<div>Earlier this year, a <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.mail.uidaho.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://news.yahoo.com/muslims-most-loyal-american-religious-group-poll-says-002413175.html"><font color="#000000">Gallup poll</font></a>
illustrated just how apocryphal
this story really is. It found
that Muslim Americans are one of
the most — if not the single most
— loyal religious group to the
United States. Now, comes the flip
side from the Pew Research
Center’s stunning <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.mail.uidaho.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.pewglobal.org/2011/11/17/the-american-western-european-values-gap/?src=prc-headline"><font color="#000000">findings</font></a>
about other religious groups in
America (emphasis mine):</div>
<blockquote>
<div>American Christians are more
likely than their Western
European counterparts to think
of themselves first in terms of
their religion rather than their
nationality; 46 percent of
Christians in the U.S. see
themselves primarily as
Christians and the same number
consider themselves Americans
first. In contrast, majorities
of Christians in France (90
percent), Germany (70 percent),
Britain (63 percent) and Spain
(53 percent) identify primarily
with their nationality rather
than their religion. <b>Among
Christians in the U.S., white
evangelicals are especially
inclined to identify first
with their faith; 70 percent
in this group see themselves
first as Christians rather
than as Americans, while 22
percent say they are primarily
American</b>.</div>
</blockquote>
<div>If, as Islamophobes argue,
refusing to assimilate is defined
as expressing loyalty to a
religion before loyalty to
country, then this data suggests
it is evangelical Christians who
are very resistant to
assimilation. And yet, few would
cite these findings to argue that
Christians pose a serious threat
to America’s national security.
Why the double standard?</div>
<div>Because Christianity is seen as
the dominant culture in America —
indeed, Christianity and America
are often portrayed as being
nearly synonymous, meaning
expressing loyalty to the former
is seen as the <i>equivalent</i>
to expressing loyalty to the
latter. In this view, there is no
such thing as separation between
the Christian church and the
American state — and every other
culture and religion is expected
to assimilate <i>to</i>
Christianity. To do otherwise is
to be accused of waging a “War on
Christmas” — or worse, to be
accused of being a disloyal to
America and therefore a national
security threat.</div>
<div>Of course, a genuinely
pluralistic America is one where —
regardless of the religion in
question — we see no conflict
between loyalties to a religion
and loyalties to country. In this
ideal America, those who identify
as Muslims first are no more or
less “un-American” than Christians
who do the same (personally, this
is the way I see things).</div>
<div>But if our politics and culture
are going to continue to make
extrapolative judgments about
citizens’ patriotic loyalties
based on their religious
affiliations, then such judgments
should at least be universal — and
not so obviously selective or
brazenly xenophobic.</div>
</div>
<dl class="yiv224086558author">
<dt><img id="yiv224086558writer-10000694" class="yiv224086558writerImage" title="David Sirota" alt="David
Sirota" src="https://www.mail.uidaho.edu/exchweb/img/clear1x1.gif" height="65" width="70"></dt>
<dd>
<div>David Sirota is a
best-selling author of the new
book "Back to Our Future: How
the 1980s Explain the World We
Live In Now." He hosts the
morning show on AM760 in
Colorado. E-mail him at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:ds@davidsirota.com">ds@davidsirota.com</a>,
follow him on Twitter
@davidsirota or visit his
website at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.mail.uidaho.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.davidsirota.com">www.davidsirota.com</a>.</div>
</dd>
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<div>Copyright
© 2011 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mail.uidaho.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://Salon.com">Salon.com</a>.
All rights reserved.</div>
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