SEATTLE – Discovery Institute, a nonprofit, conservative public policy think tank based in Seattle, recently found that most Americans believe that “for someone to truly be an American” they should agree with the ideas expressed by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; however, they do not need to share a similar ancestry or religion.
That philosophy is the key takeaway of a survey of 2,500 American adults just in time for the nation’s 250th birthday.
“Americans overwhelmingly think that true Americans are defined by their embrace of America’s founding ideals, not by their ethnicity or religion,” said Dr. John West, author of the book “Endowed by Our Creator: The Bible, Science, and the Battle for America’s Soul.” West, who serves as vice president of Discovery Institute, oversaw the survey.
The survey asked: “In your view, for someone to truly be an American, which attributes should they have?”
The majority of the respondents, 62.1%, said they should agree with the ideas expressed by the Declaration of Independence, while 64.3% said they should agree with the form of government created by the Constitution, and 71.3% said they should agree with the freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights.
Only 3.2% of respondents said people should be of European descent to truly be an American; and only 16.8% thought that true Americans needed to agree with Christianity.
A follow-up survey of 1,000 self-identifying Christian conservatives aged 1835 showed similar results.