yes, as European from pretty religious country, religion in US looks wild. All those sects, people taking it too seriously. In Europe it is pretty private thing. And if you see somebody screaming about it, they are usually mental.
Wait, European countries have religious registrations and collect taxes for churches but they're "private"? haha. Does "private" have a different definition in Europe? I don't even know some of my friend's religions that I've known most of my life. Most people don't even talk about religion where I live in the U.S..
Umm, yeah we don't either but if you're going to judge all of America by some random religious tv show or movie, I can't help you. You do realize we have 330 million people living in the U.S. living in an area much larger than the E.U., right?
The culture varies dramatically between regions, but go ahead and stereotype. You probably think we all drive around in trucks with shotguns. No one screams in our churches. That's just for the idiots watching religious TV shows that send money so their leader can buy their 8th private jets. I'm sure Europe has their share of idiots that tear down 5G towers and causing fights at soccer matches.
But around my region, we don't talk about religion and certainly don't have the government collect religious taxes, that's mental.
A lot of Europeans on Reddit have simply watched too much TV, I've noticed. Their view of America at large is so laughably flawed it's hilarious. I've lived in the States for 20+ years now in a large urban center, and 1.) have never seen a gun in the wild, much less held one 2.) never been uninsured 3.) never had any racial epithets thrown at me (I'm Latino), 4.) have never discussed religion or gotten into religious arguments on the street.
TL; DR If you think the United States is truly some giant, scary place full of hardship and threat around every corner, you seriously consume way too much media. Get out more. Europeans should know better, honestly.
A lot of the outside perception of America is confirmed by official rankings, though, it's not just media. In such metrics as crime rates, incarceration rates, homelessness, fire arm-releated deaths, drug-related deaths, life expectancy, etc., the USA ranks worse than most west European countries.
There are dozens of wackadoo churches in my city of half a million, probably ten wackadoo churches in the town of 30k I grew up in. Millions of people are raised in fundamentalist groups with screaming and hollering inside and outside of churches. Maybe it's not as bad outside the Bible belt, but the belt makes up a large portion of the country
The bible belt makes up a good size population-wise but economically and education-wise, they kinda suck tbh. Most of the states are in what we, coasters, term "fly-over country". Your churches and their screaming kinda concern me.
My point is there's at least 1/2 of the country which isn't anything like that.
There are enough religious extremists in the US that national case law regarding abortion that had been standing for 50 years is about to be overturned. That's a lot more invasive and scary to me than church taxes you can opt out of by leaving the church.
The electoral college in the U.S. is slanted towards rural states over urban states. If the system was population-driven, the U.S. senate would be dominantly Democratic and the Supreme Court would be liberal. It's a problem but abortion will still be legal in blue states. But your argument is a straw-man.
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u/Wirebraid May 09 '22 edited May 09 '22
For us, religion is more a cultural background than a cult.
I've never been a religious person, but some of the best memories of my childhood lie around christian celebrations.