Originally posted by Freddie
gouldy, America is quite segregated with what you call "religious oppression". I'd most definitely agree when you get south of Richmond, VA (which is pretty much the dividing line between North and South...that's where it starts to "feel" different). Here in the North East, and I'd assume most parts of the West Coast, especially PNW, are probably much more in line with Europe. The vast majority of religious people here are the old school Irish and Italian Catholics, who aren't very vocal about it, and non Orthodox Jews. The neo-con Christian nutjobs as seen in that video are fairly rare around here, and when they appear they are treated as such generally. Mass in general is pretty liberal thus doesn't attract those types, and while I've never been to Europe, I think the culture is somewhat similar here from what I've read. Probably more similar than it is to the South which is a whole different place really.
Yeah, I definitely agree, that's basically what I meant when I said "in fact there are many parts of America I would love to live". Over the past 2 years or so, I've become quite involved with American culture for a few different reasons and have come to understand the nation more fully, further than what we see on the tv and in the movies etc. I'm very familiar with the Bible Belt states and how different they are in comparison with somehwere like, as you say, the West Coast and North East Coast. I do also, however, understand that even in these areas the average American is far more religious than most other nationalities. Christianity is still ingrained into the culture more so than anywhere else in the world. For example, on the money in the US, it says "In God we trust", whereas on our money, we have pictures of Darwin and his drawings, along with other notable scientists. Now I'm not saying we don't have other similar issues, because we still have a picture of the Queen on our money, and the monarchy is as outdated an establishment as any religion. But you can see the point I'm trying to make.
It's not that the US suffers from religious oppression in the same way women in Iran or Pakistan suffer religious oppression, but religion is so intertwined within the culture, it's very difficult to escape it, which is just quite different to most other developed countries.