U.S. safety, democracy threatened by "religious double standard": article

NEW YORK, May 24 (Xinhua) -- There is a troubling religious double standard in the United States, one which threatens the country's safety and democracy, said an article published on the Time magazine's website on Monday.

"Because Christianity is the dominant religion in this country, its role in supporting domestic terrorism has been literally unspeakable," said the article titled "It's Time to Stop Giving Christianity a Pass on White Supremacy and Violence," which discussed the motivations behind the May 14 shooting in Buffalo, New York, that claimed 10 lives.

The clear historical record, and contemporary attitudinal data, merit an urgent discussion of white Christian nationalism as a serious and growing threat to the country's democracy, said the article, which was authored by Robert P. Jones, the CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute.

"If we are to understand the danger in which we find ourselves today, we will have to be able to use the words white Christian nationalism and domestic terrorism in the same sentence," wrote Jones, noting that "there is - and has always been - a desperate desire to preserve some version of western European Christendom."

Far too many contemporary analysts have not seen clearly that the prize being protected is not just the racial composition of the country but the dominance of a racial and religious identity, he stressed, adding that "if we fail to grasp the power of this ethno-religious appeal, we will misconstrue the nature of, and underestimate the power of, the threat before us."