You have to be Christian to truly be American? Many people in the U.S. say so

About one-third of all Americans think that you have to be a Christian to truly be an American — despite the history of religious pluralism that dates back to the nation’s very earliest days.

In a timely survey released Wednesday, just as the United States is debating the merits of suspending immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, the Pew Research Center asked residents of numerous nations what it takes to truly belong in their countries. Americans were far more likely than residents of other countries included in the survey to say that religion was key to sharing in the national identity.

Thirty-two percent of Americans said one should be Christian to really be American, compared to just 13 percent of Australians, 15 percent of Canadians and 15 percent of Europeans who felt the same way about belonging in their homelands.

The same number of Americans, 32 percent, said that being born in the United States is key to being an American. More Americans, 45 percent, said that sharing “national customs and traditions” was important, and many more, 70 percent, said being an American meant speaking English.

Religion was the only question on which Americans were an outlier. On birth, language and customs, America fell in line with other industrialized nations.

While religious minorities have lived in the U.S. since before the American Revolution — Thomas Jefferson defended the rights of Muslims, and George Washington wrote a famous letter guaranteeing religious liberty to Jews in Rhode Island — pastors and politicians have frequently described the U.S. as a “Christian nation.”

Republicans, who are more likely to be Christian, said at a higher rate that one need be Christian to be American: 43 percent compared to 29 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of independents. Pew found that 57 percent of white evangelical Protestants thought it was very important to be Christian in order to be American, while 29 percent of white mainline Protestants, 27 percent of Catholics and just 9 percent of people unaffiliated with a faith felt the same way.