> The US is primarily a christian country supposedly founded on christian values etc. Nitpick: the predominant Christianity flavor in the US is a branch that s

> The US is primarily a christian country supposedly founded on christian values etc. Nitpick: the predominant Christianity flavor in the US is a branch that split off after ~ 15 centuries, officially for purist reasons but practically for "pick-and-choose" reasons. Naturally, that's instable and that branch furter split into more and more isolated denominations, carfully picking what they choose to believe in and rejecting the rest (or rejecting factual history, thus doomed to repeat it). In particular, many in that group (but not all: it's impossible to generalize here) have forgotten how "life is inherently special" and became more preoccupied with justifying how their particular branch/flavor of belief is the best, applying personal judgement despite the warnings of the One they claim to follow. Of course, being Catholic, I'm biased in this matter and am certainly no saint. But there's a fundamental difference between adhering imperfectly to a set of beliefs which are hard but coherent, and adhering to a subset carved out in order to feel good about being able to follow everything and judge all those who don't. And worse: there are many Catholics who use particular points of doctrine to cast judgement on others and white-wash their personal bias, and missing out on the bigger picture. This is something we're continually having to address because we are all imperfect and living within the influence of our culture. But this is where time and plurality of culture comes in, because over the centuries, knowledge has been accumulated regarding cultural notions that turn out to be very bad ideas, and distilled into a (relatively) compact compendium.