Clearly I'll have to go back and catch up with this thread.

I actually don't associate the United States with any particular religion, including Christianity,

You're not in a unique position if you don't see this as a christian country, CarolC, because when you live in the middle of a culture, seeing it through other's eyes is a challenge. Philosophers and other scholars will point out that this dominant religion is embedded in the language, in the laws, in the traditions and in the architecture. It has severely encroached on privacy and has to be beated back all of the time. That's why non-christians struggle so mightily to try to keep the church out of government and private choices and lives.

I think it was yesterday, maybe early this morning, on NPR I heard an interview and discussion of this very topic, to do with the tsunami. How can religious organizations help, ala NGOs, in places where they are distrusted because the local view is that they're there just to prostelytize? There are religiously-based groups working hard to prevent that from happening, trying to rein in the others.

SRS