Perceptions of American Religiosity from Non-Americans

[BlueInGreen]

I was reading some comments on what non-Americans like and dislike about the States. The usual issues came up like healthcare, customer service tipping, guns, lack of decent public transportation system to not liking George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Common likes are its fatty food to its landscape. The dislikes are virtually the same, but if there's one thing that always makes me think "how peculiar" is complaints about the country's religiosity.

Now, being a Catholic, I don't have much of an issue with the religious undertone found throughout the US. I think the diversity of it all says something positive about the US than not. Plenty of Protestants and non-denominational Christians in the South and less metropolitan areas, to LDS members in Utah and Idaho, to Jehovah Witnesses and Scientology found in more suburban areas, to Judaism and Hinduism in urban centers to Muslims as well. I also cannot forget about the Amish and Mennonites in the Eastern US and the Midwest. As I said, I find it all fascinating and even admirable. If we're going to praise the diversity of ethnicities and races, the plethora of food options from every culture imaginable, to the various climates found with the US then, it would make sense to me, to praise the diversity of religions.

Those who do list the religiosity of the country put in specific terms - "religious fervor." To put this in context many who make this comment come from countries where religion is seen strictly as a private matter to something that's more so a hobby. Being religious in, say, the UK is being an outlier - a weirdo.

In my mind, and no offense, a country that has less religion makes a less dynamic and relatively bland country. For example I do enjoy certain aspects of British culture with its Sunday roasts, pub culture and football/soccer obsession, but if there's a religion so speak in the UK it's football/soccer. And that, to me, is awfully sad. The idea of a Super League proved that the sport is treated as a sacred institution where football/soccer fans worldwide protested. I understood why they where upset but the tone of it all was just bizarre. What if the Super League did form, what now? This is jus one example of replacement of a divine with earthly things. Their church is a pitch. Their saints are professional footballers/soccer players. Their priests are the managers.

I am biased since, once again, I am Catholic, but I'm also an American. I think the "fervor" is slightly exaggerated (Western US isn't nearly as religious as the Bible Belt) but nonetheless the religiosity of the country doesn't bother me. I want it to continue.

[josh987654321]

I'll try and answer as a non-America (never been to America and don't have any family history of American citizenship at all).

The usual issues came up like healthcare, customer service tipping, guns, lack of decent public transportation system to not liking George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Common likes are its fatty food to its landscape. The dislikes are virtually the same, but if there's one thing that always makes me think "how peculiar" is complaints about the country's religiosity.

Healthcare

There is a lot about the US Healthcare system that I don't know about, we are always obviously told the stories of poor people with treatable illnesses being left out in the cold so to speak, which always sparks a sense of injustice and the idea of a bad system, I don't know how often such a thing happens as there should be some kind of recourse or safety net for such people IMO to get the treatment they need. We are also witnessing the damage the major pharmaceutical companies are inflicting on us in making profitability their number one goal, as a "cure" is a bad investment and a lifetime treatment is more profitable, or a treatment for one illness only to cause another as a side effect is also more profitable etc, warping health entirely.

That being said, the healthcare system we have in Australia for example is not without it's major problems and given COVID 19 have really come to light. A centralized heavily government controlled system can turn on you at the flick of a switch. As the old saying goes, if your not paying for the product then you are the product... and what's so great about our system (sarcastic) is that I have to cover half the costs anyway, so I am still paying for it (maybe not as much) and without as much control as you might have in terms of your healthcare treatment and options.

Either way, both systems have been thoroughly trashed IMO during covid19 because even in the US they were centralizing control and banning effective treatments like Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin. And given how both Countries are all signing away their sovereignty to the WHO is a moot point at this stage IMO.

customer service tipping

Vehemently against it and very thankful we don't have such a system in Australia. It encourages the worst like "Hooters" behavior IMO and when the chef prepares a meal we don't pay the chef 'whatever we feel like' in the same way, the workers should have their wages included in the cost of the end product IMO as they were part of the end product, neither do we pay delivery drivers 'whatever we feel like', they have a certain price for delivery that is added to the final product.

Guns

It was introduced when the USA had musket rifle, cannons etc technology and off the back of a civil war for independence, the technology has advanced a lot since then and we can never own the same weaponry the government has at it's disposal today but we should always err on the side of freedom, and there are always restrictions, even in the USA, Australia for example has very stupid and ridiculous restrictions on guns, but we don't have high capacity guns and they must be under lock and key. It's a very deep topic IMO with a lot of pro's and con's.

One thing that gets me though, is if your going to have gun rights, people should be carrying them to prevent mass shooters, since if the average citizen has a gun you can't wait for police to show up and resolve it because by then it's too late.

What would annoy me, is being told I couldn't carry a gun while guns are numerous and a criminal could sneak one in.

lack of decent public transportation system

I never use public transport anyway so I wouldn't know.

George W. Bush and Donald Trump

I don't like G W Bush, he lied about WMD's in Iraq and a host of other things and with Romney and McCain, it really showed both major parties were just two sides of the same coin, same thing happening in Australia, it doesn't even matter which of the two major parties gets in anymore as the end result is the same.

Donald Trump thankfully changed that a lot though, and I very much supported him, even with his major mistakes such as the jab. As long as it's not mandatory and is entirely voluntary, they can knock themselves out with their stupidity (It was sad at the start when little was known, but now to be on the booster train given what we know today is just stupidity IMO). It's the coercion and force that is truly evil and unacceptable.

USA's religiosity

I'm a big believer in what Ronald Raegan said, the moment the USA (I would say the western world) forgets that they are one nation under God, they will be one nation gone under... and we are almost at that point IMO.

And when I say God, I don't mean multiculturalism or anything, I mean Our Lord Jesus Christ, when the western world was founded on God, it wasn't Islam or Judaism or Buddhism or whatever, it was Christianity. Multi-racial yes but multi-cultural no, different races and cultures are all good and enriching things ONLY if there is a fundamental truth that unites them in the one Country, which is or used to be at least Christianity for the western world.

When Christianity falls in the western world, so too will the western world fall as we are currently witnessing IMO.

And of course, Christianity only works when entirely voluntary. So can't make or coerce people to become Christian, but with that understanding one can't flood a Country with those of another faith and not expect problems, neither can one expel those of another faith from the Country, because then that's fake conversion. Need an environment that facilitates the growth of Christianity, all Constantine the Great had to do was legalize the faith throughout the empire and not persecute it at all.

God Bless

[beev_bove_biv]

Go ask an American waitress if she wants minimum wage or tips. They all want the tips. Commies don't like tips because they have to be earned.

[red solo cup]

Americans give more money to charities per capita than any other country in the world.

[MaximGun]

The fervour makes life interesting.

Nothing worse than abortion happening unprotested.  I like protests.  Shows me that people are still thinking and caring.

Not sure how you can end up with Biden and Harris in the White House.  American politics is so disgustingly corrupted that I'd like to see Washington DC destroyed by nuclear fire.  But that might simply be a case of seeing the corruption on public display.  Perhaps there are Kamala Harrises in many countries in the world and we simply don't see it. Out of sight, out of mind.

Downside of American religiousity.  You are over-confident about how the rest of the world works.  People who hardly travel think they understand the relationships and feuds of 1000 year old Afghan tribesmen and Somalian warlords.

You will start the war that destroys you.  Of that, I am confident.

[Prayerful]

Go ask an American waitress if she wants minimum wage or tips. They all want the tips. Commies don't like tips because they have to be earned.

The minimum wage is low, barely a minimum, so unless she be very bad at her work, she'll make more from tips. Yet there could be a certain lack of dignity to it.

[josh987654321]

Go ask an American waitress if she wants minimum wage or tips. They all want the tips.

Of course they do lol, a waitress at "hooters" will earn more with tips because it's exploitive IMO, which is exactly why I dislike it so much, it also would be a pain as a customer trying to factor in costs of a meal and how much one should tip, just tell me the end cost.

Commies don't like tips because they have to be earned.

A wage also has to be negotiated and earned too. Like I said, the delivery driver doesn't get paid in tips, I don't see how that's different then a waiter/waitress delivering food.

That's just my opinion, not a huge issue.

God Bless

[beev_bove_biv]

Go ask an American waitress if she wants minimum wage or tips. They all want the tips.

Of course they do lol, a waitress at "hooters" will earn more with tips because it's exploitive IMO, which is exactly why I dislike it so much, it also would be a pain as a customer trying to factor in costs of a meal and how much one should tip, just tell me the end cost.

Commies don't like tips because they have to be earned.

A wage also has to be negotiated and earned too. Like I said, the delivery driver doesn't get paid in tips, I don't see how that's different then a waiter/waitress delivering food.

That's just my opinion, not a huge issue.

God Bless

Delivery drivers DO get tips, but they usually get much less.

You have no idea what you're actually talking about. You're like an American communist SJW trying to tell a refugee from an actual communist country how wonderful communism is.

The overwhelming majority of waitresses don't make tips exploiting their bodies. This is so incredibly narrow-minded and idiotic. Every restaurant I've ever worked at, waitresses of all shapes and sizes walked out with multiples of $100 every single night. Mind you I haven't worked in food service since the COVID Kristallnocht.

Many businesses have tried paying waitresses hourly wages and the results are always the same: the good waitresses quit and go work somewhere else, and crappy waitresses start working and the service suffers.

[beev_bove_biv]

Go ask an American waitress if she wants minimum wage or tips. They all want the tips. Commies don't like tips because they have to be earned.

The minimum wage is low, barely a minimum, so unless she be very bad at her work, she'll make more from tips. Yet there could be a certain lack of dignity to it.

If you think waiting tables lacks dignity then you're probably a lazy spoiled brat who has never put in an honest day's work in your entire life.

[Jayne]

My youngest son got his first job a while ago as a dishwasher.  As I understand it, this is considered the lowest position in the restaurant and is a low pay and  very low prestige job.

I am so proud of my son.  For one thing, he has realistic expectations of working life and was prepared to start at the bottom.  For another, his coworkers and superiors were so impressed with his work ethic that they soon started training him as a line cook  (the next step up) and seem to have identified him as having potential to go into management. 

Sometimes people treat those in low prestige jobs as if they had no dignity, but the problem is not the job itself but the attitude of people who think that way.  There is a genuine loss of dignity in situations like a waitress wearing revealing clothing in order to get better tips.  That is a matter of selling her body.  But people do not lose their dignity merely by working in service jobs, no matter how little prestige they have.

[queen.saints]

Americans get criticized so much because we are the only people in the world who are nice enough to listen to some foreigner make incredibly rude and ill-informed comments about our country, often while we are in the process of going out of our way to do a kind deed for said foreigner, and then instinctively put a positive spin on it and say,

"Wow, it's so interesting to learn about another culture's perspective... I love your country, by the way."

Americans are some of the very best people in the world and their religious fervor is a big part of that.

[Jayne]

I was reading some comments on what non-Americans like and dislike about the States. The usual issues came up like healthcare, customer service tipping, guns, lack of decent public transportation system to not liking George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Common likes are its fatty food to its landscape. The dislikes are virtually the same, but if there's one thing that always makes me think "how peculiar" is complaints about the country's religiosity.

The dislikes are virtually the same because they come from the same source.  The people who make these complaints have virtually always gotten these ideas from Leftist media rather than personal experiences.

As a Canadian, I am very aware of how I have been indoctrinated with anti-US propaganda by my country's media outlets, including the government sponsored CBC.

Canadians typically think of the US much like Leftist Americans think of the Right.  In both situations the criticisms seem based on lies and distortions.

[MaximGun]

Americans get criticized so much because we are the only people in the world who are nice enough to listen to some foreigner make incredibly rude and ill-informed comments about our country.

And Russians never get blamed, by Americans, for say....hmm.... interfering in their election, conspiring with their sitting President.  A complete fabrication for domestic political purposes.

No apology is made to Russia when this is found out to be a giant wilful lie.  Just libel a country of 140 million people, pretend they plotted to overthrow your election and move on as though no harm is done.  Hey, they are just Russians.  We can lie about them, nobody cares.  Since Hollywood made them the bad guys in the films nobody will care if they are lied about.

The USA bombs the heck out of various countries around the world based on lies, and you are worried about rude comments?

[queen.saints]

Americans get criticized so much because we are the only people in the world who are nice enough to listen to some foreigner make incredibly rude and ill-informed comments about our country.

And Russians never get blamed, by Americans, for say....hmm.... interfering in their election, conspiring with their sitting President.  A complete fabrication for domestic political purposes.

No apology is made to Russia when this is found out to be a giant wilful lie.  Just libel a country of 140 million people, pretend they plotted to overthrow your election and move on as though no harm is done.  Hey, they are just Russians.  We can lie about them, nobody cares.  Since Hollywood made them the bad guys in the films nobody will care if they are lied about.

The USA bombs the heck out of various countries around the world based on lies, and you are worried about rude comments?

Wow, it's so interesting to learn your rude and uninformed opinion about America, especially considering your own country's colorful history.

[Xavier]

I think it's good that a materially prosperous country like America retains high levels of religiosity on the whole. That's a Good Sign. In Europe, with the exception of rare countries like Catholic Poland, the general trend is in the opposite direction: the more material wealth a country has, the less religious in general its citizens tend to be.