"There’s a good bit of research demonstrating that the majority of American’s [sic] identify themselves as “Christian” when asked by a pollster, but when asked what this label actually means in terms of core values and lifestyle choices, it becomes apparent that for the majority of them the meaning of 'Christian' is basically 'American.'"
—Greg Boyd, in his insightful article "Don’t Weep For the Demise of American Christianity"
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I'm going to be doing my dissertation on cultural anthropology of religious identity, citizenship, and education. My area studies background is in Islamic Studies, but as an American Christian, I can't help but be comparative. The anthropologist Bruce Kapferer coined the phrase "religion of nationalism" to capture how nationalism unconsciously shapes religion to itself. His case studies were Australia and Sri Lanka, but it's applicable from Egypt to the US as well.
Muslim militants will say they are obeying Islam by being terrorists and bombers, but when they list out specific reasons for their targets, they are all political and related to national pride.
In the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, Shia and Sunni in Iraq and Shia and Sunni in Iran took nationalist lines against the other country, not along sectarian lines.
I think the question of how your religious identity is tied up with your national identity is a crucial question, and more explicit in Islamic Studies than in studies of the US.
Most (if not all) of the Christians I know really couldn't tell you what is Christian about them as distinct from Protestant (or Catholic), their particular denomination, and their being an American (or even Republican/Democrat).
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