Dans mon idée des Etats-Unis sur la religion, je voyais les américains
très puritains. J'ai pu, en effet, voir que la religion est pour vous
importante. Mais vous y voyez aussi des dangers. Je voulais savoir,
qu'est ce que vous appelez "christianity"? Je pense que vous avez fait
la même analyse de nous. Mais les réponses de mes camarades ne
représentent pas ce que pensent tous les français. LUniversité Assas
est, en effet, connue pour son attachement à la religion et à une France
traditionnaliste. Ainsi, même si certains de mes camarades peuvent vous
paraître légèrement islamophobe ou pro-catholique, ils représentent une
minorité. Je voulais également savoir si vous voyez la France comme un
pays antisémite?

Quand on demande aux Américains et aux Français d'associer des mots au
nom Religion, on s'aperçoit que la majorité des personnes interrogées,
qu'elles soient françaises ou américaines,pensent à Dieu, au
christianisme. Les Américains s'attachent à décrire les croyances et les
rites en parlant de Dieu ,Jésus, église, croix,... Les Français citent
le plus souvent le catholicisme.Pour les uns comme pour les autres la
Religion est associée aux grands moments de la vie: mariage,
mort,...Pour certains Américains et Français, la Religion conduit au
fanatisme, à la discrimination et est source de conflits et de guerre.Un
petit nombre de Français et d'américains estiment que la Religion est
nécessaire à l'épanouissement de la vie spirituelle. En conclusion, on
ne note des différences flagrantes entre ce qu'évoque la Religion pour
les Américains et les Français.

To respond to Adil's questions - I'm not too sure what you mean by "what
do you call christianity." Christianity, at least to me, means any
religion that has it's core belief in Jesus Christ and his
teachings...for example, I consider Catholicism and Protestantism to be
both "sects" of Christianity - other Americans may consider the idea of
Christianity differently. I don't think most Americans think of France
as an anti-semitic country...I think France is diverse when it comes to
religions, and is tolerant of this diversity. However, this does bring
to mind an interesting pattern in the word associations to religion: the
U.S. side did not recognize that many religions of the world (mainly
Catholicism) whereas the French side recognized Christianity, Islam,
Judaism, and Atheism. This may say something about the exposure of the
U.S. to other religions other than Christianity, or maybe even its
tolerance to them. What do the French think about America's tolerance to
different religions?

I was interested in the fact that many French students wrote down
different religions (for example: Christianity, Catholicism, Islam,
etc...) but only one person put down "church". Do French go to church
often? I know that, for example, here in the US I have many friends that
call themselves "Christians" yet do not go to church.

This gets to Adil's question, which is a really good one. Like Jorge
said, a "Christian" person is someone who beliefs in Jesus Christ and
his teachings. And as he also nicely pointed out, you can think of
Catholics and Protestants as two different sects of Christianity. And,
in my experience, even the Protestant sect is extremely divided. You
have Jehova's Witnesses, 7th-Day Adventists, and many others.

To Pascal: you made an excellent point that religion sometimes leads to
misunderstandings, discrimination, and even war. For example, an
unfortunate side-effect of the attacks of September 11th on the US was
that some Americans viewed it not only as an attack by terrorists, but
an attack by the Muslim community in general. Aside from this
unfortunate misjudgement by many Americans, I believe Americans are
rather tolerant of other religions. I too, ask the question that Jorge
asked: how tolerant are French people of other religions?

I agree with most of the dialogue analyzing the associations of both of
our classes of students, but I think there's an important misconception
in your second paragraph, Edgar.

While the term "Christian" is generally applied to a person who believes
in Jesus and his teachings, the two sects you have listed believe that
he is the son of God, but also God himself. Anyways, these sects
(Protestants and Catholics) are not the only sects of Christianity, and,
it's improtant to note, Jehovah's Witnesses are not a sect of
Protestantism, but a different sect entirely, which denies the deity of
Christ.

While we're at it, I think the term "Christian" is more often applied to
Protestants than Catholics in America, since Catholics are most often
called...Catholics. Just for clarification, and check me if I'm wrong
about this, but the core difference between Protestants and Catholics is
not their view of Jesus, but their deification of Mary, the Pope, and
the saints, in addition to the belief in absolution and purgatory.

As a final comment on the subject, in response to the first reply, I
don't think anyone think France is antisemitic...and I hope nobody in
France thinks we have any such bias.

what do the french think of laws banning head scarves and other religous
items from being worn at school, etc.? I think laws like this are where
some of the American feeling that the French are anti-Muslim comes from.
In the US we pretend that religion and the state are seperated (in truth
a big lie!) but the belief in individual rights is so strong, it's
difficult to regulate what people wear.

I found the answers to be very similar in general, but I also noted the
diversity of religions mentioned on the French side. This strikes me,
since America is a melting pot of ethnicities and cultures. No doubt,
France is also diverse. I might propose two explanations: either
religion is a more controversial issue in France, or religions like
Islam are becoming stronger in France through immigration and this makes
Frenchmen be more aware of other religions. Any thoughts?

In response to the question "do Americans view France as an anti-semitic
country?" I can certainly say I have never thought of France as an
anti-semitic society or country in any way. Why do you think that we
might think this? Do you feel that France is anti-semitic? On the
subject of religion, I feel that America is much less a "melting-pot"
than it tries to portray. Though on the whole, American society may
believe itself to be accepting and tolerant, from my own experiences I
have not found this to be true. Many Americans I meet have strong
feelings about their religion and are not very open-minded about other
religions. Are French people this way as well?

I agree with Evans, I usually hear Christian and Protestant as synonyms
and Catholics as Catholics only. I'm surprised nobody mentioned Mormons,
the most American of all Christian sects! Not that I'm one or that I
care. All in all, I agree with most other comments made elsewhere.

Lauren- i've been waiting on an answer for the ban on relious-items at
school. I had this talk with one of my French friends, and he said that
it would make going to school easier on the kids. No one would get
bullied because they have a scarf on their head etc. Sometime i think
maybe it was a good idea? I don't know, i'd like to hear it from the
french side. You know whats interesting though? I was in Tunisia this
summer, (population 90% muslim) and the kids at school and university
can't wear religious items to school.

My two cents on religion is school is just an excerpt from some old
American document: "Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
Clearly this prohibits the free exercise of religion. Not that the views
of our forefathers are respected very much in today's society, but they
should be.

je veux juste ajouter et clarifier un peu l'idée a propos de la france
la france etait tellement un pays pour toutes les nationalités ,pour
toutes les religions et pour toutes les personnes qui esperent vivre en
paix ,,la france reste toujours le symbole de la democratie et de la
liberté dans le monde,et biensur qu'elle n'est pas un pays antisemiste
,on a tous vu la defense du president JAQUES CHIRAC pour les juifs qui
se sont sentis menacés a un moment,,meme le gouvernement israilien a
présenté son support et son regret pour la politique francaise