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I don't know what to make of the USA. On the one hand, it is in many ways the most Christian nation on the planet. But on the other hand, I'm coming to see it as also the most destructive nation on the planet, in terms of the values (and weapons) it exports, and in terms of its military, political and business activities around the world. I struggle with this. Perhaps, as hinted by Michael Goheen 85 minutes into a talk, the answer "is that no Western country has done a better job of separating the gospel from public life - in reality - than the United States".

Anyway, this typically perceptive post from Vinoth Ramachandra outlines some of the problem:

Ten years on, media commentary on 9/11 is legion, while other events, equally horrific, are quickly forgotten. Three days after the 9/11 attacks, Howard Zinn, the distinguished American historian and author of A People’s History of the United States, wrote: “The images on television horrified and sickened me. Then our political leaders came on television, and I was horrified and sickened again. They spoke of retaliation, of vengeance, of punishment. I thought: they have learned nothing, absolutely nothing,  from the history of the twentieth century, from a hundred years of retaliation, vengeance, war, a hundred years of terrorism and counter-terrorism, of violence met with violence in an unending cycle of stupidity.” Read more...