第44节:SUMMER夏(13) Why? You may ask: Why is Christianity diminishing in this used-to-be Christian country? The dissolution of the traditional two-parent American family? The media effect that led youth toward adulthood? Or the personal computer, the internet, the Facebook? (Babcock 51-52) It is true that after the Civil War, the idea of an American nation, an American people, an American destiny began to coalesce. But that is not the main reason; the main reason is the changing of Politics. Politics prospered and prospers religions, and it also diminishes them, or oppresses them. And politics does both —prosper Christianity and diminish Christianity — different actions from different time, Jews held distrust and often hatred for the Roman Empire. Although they were supposed to be under the authority of the Jewish court system, yet all ruling for the death penalty had to be sent to the Roman government (no author 1).The political system oppressed the Jewish people, and it, not some pro-Christianity system, prospered the development of Christianity. And we can look at the political system at the time when the first Americans came over. Britain was persecuting them so much. It was like the Roman time in which Christianity prospered—religion needs oppressed people. Jesus never joined any political parties, and he called for people to live a “counter cultural” life. At that time, it was against the authority, against the government, because people didn’t have freedom; Christianity was actually giving people hope for freedom. Politics in progress is deep within Christianity. We know that Americans’ political lives are better than the lives of those who came before us. The thriving of Christianity back to Roman time suggests that there were oppressed people who needed compassion. The lives of Jewish people were harsh. By contemporary view, what Jesus did was against the authority and government. The key to understanding why Christianity thrived at a time when people were oppressed—Jewish oppressed by Romans—is that they did not have freedom, and they desired it. In the race between wanting and can not having, their desire increased—and, in this way, Christianity, which tells people to live a“countercultural ” life, to be saved, to have hope for heaven, thrived. Christians back in that time were materially poor by contemporary standards, but in at least one dimension —faith —we have to count them rich. “In ancient pagan society there was little concern for the victims of violence and injustice. There was no reason why Zeus or Jupiter should feel sorry for slaves or other victims of misfortune. Christianity, on the other hand, told of a God who cared deeply about his children” (Lewy 9). I do not raise this issue to imply that Americans now should be oppressed, nor am I arguing that the progress of the political system has made Christianity worse off. I am, instead, making a much simpler point. We have paid a price for democracy.