American Christianity means you go to church on Sunday, but then drink and sin the rest of the days. You only look out for yourself and don't do anything with the Bible/God outside of church. You live for yourself being "independent" which is very American. I have lost family members bc they watch them and say they're hypocrites bc they normally see them at the bar.
I follow Jesus, not religion. Think of religion as politics, very corrupt and full of lies. Even the Bible itself is not about religion. It contains religion. The Bible is a book about "the kingdom of God." We are to learn how to navigate the kingdom of God, in the present.
For me I grew up in church, in an American Christian family. There was adultery and abuse included. We never read the Bible as a family and rarely prayed (except in distress). I was never taught biblical principles, except the 10 commandments obviously. I could watch, do, dress, and even date anyone I wanted. I made ALOT of mistakes simply from ignorance bc of it. I will say I taught myself to pray and did every night my entire childhood. But my grandfather actually introduced me to God, even though I went to church. He told me about God while we were looking at the stars outside. I did not get saved in church initially. I think that's why I'm not into American Christianity.
I should add I do enjoy church and I worship God during it. I agree with most points the pastor makes, but I will say that their view of God is not the same as mine at times. Probably the thing that irritates me the most is that wealth is taught as evil and Jesus as poor. The Bible completely contradicts that with almost every prophet in the old testament, history (kings were/are always rich!), and even saying Jesus was rich, yet for our sake became poor. The church constantly tries to lie around it. "Oh they mean in heaven." Clearly there's a spiritual and earthly meaning too or they would have called him out on it! The other thing that bothers me is they have no problem agreeing with that lie, but they will never address the Marxist issues with our country and transgenders/ changing children even. They can be very politically correct bc they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings so they dance around the issue. And I get not wanting to step on anyone's toes, but people need to hear the truth. And if I'm being fully honest I don't even think most pastors understand what is going on in our country.
From a saving point of view, I'm not sure there's a difference. In other words I still believe American Christians are saved. But they struggle more in this life bc either their view of God is off or their morals are off. Both of these go against the kingdom of God.
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