ABSTRACT
Whether your news lands on a doorstep or in an inbox or on a Twitter feed in America, it is frequently an inventory of fear, resentment, and violent conflict, and a significant portion of it can be attributed to religion. Examples of this are ubiquitous. From before his election, the persistent falsity that President Barack Obama was not a Christian was suggested by conservative politicians and religious leaders alike. State senators and representatives have risen to renown by warning Americans of the threats immigrants and Muslims pose to the American “way of life.” In the same twenty-four hour period in March of 2012, the Florida House of Representatives passed legislation allowing for school prayer and a bill banning Shari'a law, a move which not only illustrates the power of the conservative evangelical lobby, but also the ignorance of many regarding the most basic tenets of the Islamic religion. Current public debates ranging from immigration law to national security spending to education and health care reform betray a histrionics that tap into something much deeper and more elemental than those specific culture-war battles: the question of who is an American.
