Religious Diversity in the United States
Ever since it was founded, United States has always been a melting pit for diversity as it continues to become diverse as time pass by. Diversity can be described as a scenario where an organization or even a nation has different people from various races and cultures. United States is known for its diversity as many people go there due to availability of opportunities. Diversity was once regarded as a toll that brings people together but this is not the case anymore. This is because, diversity has now gone to become an asset. As they go there, these immigrants carry with them their cultures and norms including their religion which brings about regions diversity. Many people tend to believe that religious diversity is helping America become better which is not the case. Diversity is known to bring about various challenges as well as benefits as people learn new cultures. When it comes to diversity in religion, the challenges present surpass the benefits as it is responsible for giving the government a basis of diving and grouping people thus dividing our peaceful nation. On a daily basis, America is being faced with challenges brought about by religious diversity especially with regard to Muslim religion. United States have made people from the Muslim religion seem like terrorists whose only aim is hurting American people. Moreover, religious groups have grown to prejudice other religious groups as each religious fraternity regard themselves superior. The issue of people segregating themselves based on their religious beliefs has been present throughout the Nations’ history not just today. Looking at how people segregate themselves based on religious beliefs its clear that Religious diversity does harm our nation and brings about negative effects as seen in this paper.
Division of races has been present in America since the nation was founded and It began with the slaves brought from Africa. Slaves would be brought from Africa to come and work on farms and in the process taught about Christianity. Forms many years, African American began following Christianity as they were forced to believe in God. They were often segregated from the rest until the emergence of the civil rights era. The civil rights era brought about the development of numerous civil rights movements whose core aim was to stop segregation.
However, this was not the case as these movements were responsible for furthering segregation within Christianity religion. As Marsden states, during the civil rights era, numerous African American leaders opted to isolate themselves from the white religious leaders despite them being on the same religious sect. this resulted in further division of races as people opted to segregate themselves based on their belief despite the Civil Rights act being enacted. Marsden argues that even after the formulation of the Civil Rights African American church opted to isolate themselves from their white counterpart and this brought about further division among the American people. The Civil rights act aimed at bringing people to common grounds and uniting races but nothing as such happened as these division are currently present on our modern society as blacks isolate themselves from the whites.
Additionally, many American people tend to believe that many people coming foreign nations come from nations in the Middle east. This is made possible by religion as it makes it easier to group people. The segregation of people is still persisting and this is fully depicted by the issuing of travel bans for various nations. The American people have gradually learned to place people of different races in a specific religious group depending on their motherland. This has gone further as religious leaders who are currently sitting in office make use of religion with the aim of singling out a particular race. This was vivid when the current government announced that for ninety days, America was going to exclude incoming foreigners coming from seven Muslim nations. This announcement shows just how much the Middle east has been isolated into a particular religion despite their being other religions. This announcement also banned Syrian refugees from coming to United States which proves that indeed the American society is inhuman.
Travel bans are not the only thing bringing division among people as division is still present in our modern communities. In our modern society, people are still being divided due to religion as each group sees themselves better. Catholics tend to regard themselves superior claiming that their faith is strong compared to Protestants while Protestants accuse Catholics of worshiping gods. All these arguments prove just how divided our country is on basis of religion. Each denomination tries to outdo the other and disregard the American dream. Moreover, people have become divided within the various denominations despite all of them being in one religion. For instance, white Protestants regard themselves more righteous than the black Protestants and this brings about division in one denomination. Initially, it was all about praising God and enjoying the sermon but today, people are more focused on outdoing the other and proving they are superior which in turns bring about division.
Apart from there being division of races caused by religion, prejudice is another effect brought about by religion. The American people have taken their prejudice a step further and incorporated it to the system of government. This is clear as the government uses religion when they aim as pursing prejudice against particular groups. This can be seen in the case of church of Jesus of latter day Saints vs. Amos. This case was brought forward to the Supreme Court as an employee form Mormon church was dismissed from his job just because he could not present a certificate claiming he is in good relation with the church. As a result, the establishment clause was brought in and the court argued that the discrimination was in accordance with the existing laws and was not violating any clause.
As a result, the Supreme Court was forced to amend the law thus allow religious organization hire people based in their religious belief thus safeguarding their belief. Instead if this move helping the nation, it weakness it as religious groups start showing prejudice in their hiring process as they focus more on religious beliefs instead of qualifications. There are numerous cases that prove just how the government is practicing prejudice based on religion.
Another case that prove this is the Zelman vs. Simmons-Harris where the court ended up approving the usage of voucher to distribute government funds to religious schools. In this case, the court ended up arguing that the whole case had a secular intention to offer schools with efficient education to students whose educational system was dysfunctional. This move shows that the court support these religious schools being segregated from public schools a move that depicts prejudice. The court went ahead to comment that money going to religious schools is never from the government but rather the parents or a particular individual. As a result, the American people have adopted the act of prejudicing people based in their religious beliefs as others feel more superior than others.
Additionally, religion has been responsible for causing cultures to clash and fight. As America continues to become diverse, the more cultures form different nations continue flowing and clashing. As a result, America ends up clashing with other nations with varying belief systems such as Japan and China. This is present when American organization are recruiting new employees and have are expected not to discriminate people based on their religion. This however is not an easy task as these organizations have to consider various things including sex, race and the candidate’s religious beliefs. According to DDD, If united States does not impose standards of non-discriminatory conduct, then other nations would come in and begin discriminating our precious country and thus no foreign nations compels the non- enforcement of the Title VII. As a result, companies and organizations begin discriminating but try to show they are doing so. DDDD argues that if due to discrimination a clash is experienced between these big corporations as well between nations. The civil rights acts argue that it is illegal for any business to segregate their employees but when it comes to working with other businesses form oversees it is acceptable as it ensures all employees are out of harm. As a result, companies and nations end up clashing once they know their fellow counterpart is discriminating them in any way.
In summary, it is accurate to say that religious diversity brings more harm than good. Instead of making the American people see more diverse aspects of life as well as drawing people closer, it is responsible for diving people as well as discriminating them. Government officials have gone a step forward to labeling people based on their religion and this puts the nation in jeopardy. The government has gone further to put travel ban to various countries all because of their religious belief something that brings about conflicts between nations. All these issues will go unnoticed until the American people see just how religion is dividing them. American people will continue to clash with each other and with other nations al because of religion and diversity. F the American dream is to be pursued, the American people must wake up and see how religion is playing a role in dividing them and weakening their nation. By doing so, it will become easier to find alternative that will curb this issue once and for all.
