Nobody told me about this when we moved to the US. I turned up for my first day in 5th grade, was shown my desk, and suddenly everyone’s doing this flag worship ritual. So I can say with confidence that, from an outsider’s perspective, it was never the salute that made the Pledge of Allegiance seem creepy and fascistic.
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Yes. The US has considerably more practicing Christians than other developed countries and is an outlier in plots of income vs religiosity (typically poor countries are more religious, perhaps because ideas of a heavenly paradise are more attractive if your earthly life isn’t that great). Although you have to realize that a lot of people in the US go to church not so much because they are all that into religion as such, but because so much of their social life is associated with it – coffee and pastries in the church basement after services, organized picnics, sports teams, etc.
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Number yes, percentage the US isn’t that different than Europe or Oceania. Granted, I guess that depends on what you consider “practicing” as well, but wiki shows percentages of who identifies a Christian, and the US isn’t that different, except it is more protestant than Catholic.
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To see posts like this from Cory, along with the collective (no pun intended) comments they typically generate, is literally the only reason I read BB anymore: the way people like yourselves can, on a regular basis, take basically decent things and turn them into sources of horror, subjects of ridicule, and outlets for your smug sarcastic caustic bitterness, and in such lock-step fashion no less, is, well, indicative of what my side of history thinks is wrong with your side of history.
Hey! Wring a bit of pearl-clutching snarkery out of the “Christian Pledge of Allegiance” while you’re at it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Flag
my classmates and I pledged this every morning in middle school. So obviously we all grew up to be rapists, racists and Trump supporters.
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TEACHERS! They’re the biggest Nazis in the world, constantly correcting kids about everything. It’s disgusting!
[Note: for those who need to be informed.]
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I’ll have a few broken eggs to make an omelette, with a side of history, and I will eat it for breakfast.
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Granted, I guess that depends on what you consider “practicing” as well
But that’s exactly the point. Many countries have official state churches where you have to go to a lot of trouble to not be counted as a member, and so you have people counted as “Christian” who have never been to church other than for a wedding or funeral. I’m talking about plots like this (across all religions, where the question isn’t what religion you identify as but whether you see religion as playing an important role in your life).
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Is that a fundamentalist thing? Where I grew up (Ireland), that was something that nominally Christian people did. Only once on Sunday and never during the week? We had to stand up and recite the Hail Mary or Our Father before every class (I was Protestant, so I just said the Our Father, but I did assist a priest in a mass at school once). The Simpsons looked Anglican to me - nobody (including the minister) looked particularly enthusiastic or convinced, and the presence of robes, stained glass etc. but lack of statues suggested Anglicanism to me. Since then I’ve seen robes in fundamentalist churches, but in any I’d seen as a child the pastor wore a suit. Charismatic churches were less formal than that.
They also poked fun at fundamentalists who actually thought the Bible should be taken literally and applied to normal life:
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Personally I think it’s wrong to force children to daily repeat a loyalty oath they don’t truly comprehend and cannot be ethically held to. Oaths (like contracts) should be only entered into with compentcy and informed consent.
Also, while the salute may predate the Nazis, the current context of the salute is more relevant to modern usage then the history. Much like the swatistka and the Confederate flag.
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Some people are reassured by cookie-cutter patriotism, others are not.
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Isn’t it a bit late for summer reruns? This was posted here a month or two ago.
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I know, right? How many times has this been covered at this site? Every time, the same talking points: Socialist, minister, Nazi salute. At least this time it didn’t also cover the fact that “under God” wasn’t added until the Red scare in the 1950’s.
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If they stop including threads like this, do you promise to stop insulting the readership?
I’d consider that a fair trade.
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And they are going to avoid us like the plague.
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What makes you say that? 
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Are they trying to dance a three-person tango?
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Well, that’s not a headline. It’s a Cory headline.
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No. The mindless following of ritual to the exclusion of decency is what we are fighting against.
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Nah, you strike me as more likely to be part of the Cruz faction.
However, since authoritarian theocracy is one of the few forms of government worse than fascism, this doesn’t really help your case.
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