Christianity & American Culture

This is a problem many face today, though. Many Christians today find a conflict between Christianity and American culture. American culture has developed along secular, scientific, and non-disciplinary lines that many Christians find contradictory to their faith. The conflict is seen in political action taken by fundamentalist churches in particular to try to redirect the course of American culture in this "cultural war." Yet, much of American culture has a religious base or source related to the Protestantism, and specifically to the Puritanism, of our ancestors in New England. Many of the ideas accepted in American culture can be traced back to this earlier period in our history, ideas such as the work ethic.

Traditional American culture was closely allied with religious institutions. The churches were key sources of power and support for the battle against Britain in the American Revolution, for instance, and would continue to affect American life through directly and in a massive way through the n

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ace this ethic maintains that life is intrinsically valuable, which means that it is not to be denied for the sake of something else, and self-denial is one instance of such. Life is not to be denied for the sake of family, career, country, or anything else; rather, these are to fit, if they can, into a self-fulfilling lifestyle (Sample 15). Religion needs to recognize that such changes are taking place but should not alter its own myths or symbols because of it. Religion should represent something permanent that connects us with tradition. One religion that adapts well to different situations while retaining myths, symbols, and rituals, thus showing how the two ideas can exist together, is Buddhism. Buddhism takes on a slightly different form in the different countries of the world where it is practiced, combining its religious culture with the social culture of each country. Buddhism is a major religious force in the countries of Southeast Asia, and it is defined in these regions first by the particular tenets of the religion which separate it from other religions and second by the manner in which it is integrated into the different societies of Southeast Asia. Buddhism has similarly been adapted to the U.S. experience,
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1350
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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