In that case, as I asked him, is it ever actually possible to HAVE a nation since there is almost never going to be a time where 100% of a particular geographical locations population is going to share that commonality to the last man.
It's easily possible to have a
nation. Its impossible to do so in a geographical region as large as the US based on a single personal choice made by the population (which is what a person's religion is), though, since the population will not all make the same choices. But one can base it on the shared history and politics of that geographical region without having to worry about not including the whole population, because the entire population is naturally included in that shared history and politics. Even if someone comes form another country, they are adopting the shared history of the US as their own when they come here. We can say that the US is a Republican Nation (as in Republic, not party).
The problem here is not that the US cannot be considered a "nation", because it can.
It's that many people want to pigeon hole that "nation" as a Christian one specifically, but that is a social trait that is determined by personal choice.
They want to define the super-nation based on a trait that is
not shared by all members of that nation.
There are members of a Christian nation within the US.
But that Christian nation does
not end at the geographical borders of the US. It is all over the globe.
The problem here is that when discussing the "US" nation (which is geographical and political), we can
not use social traits. We
have to stick with geographical and political commonalities or else we are changing the defining parameters of "nation" midstream.
When discussing the US as a nation, we can
only mean Nation-state because the US
is a Nation-state. We cannot separate the "state" part of the discussion without also separating the "US" part of the discussion.
That's where the equivocation was odccuring.
There is no "yes and No" answer here becasue the US cannot
be a Christian-nation. It can only
contain a
portion of the
world's Chrtistian nation. It cannot itself be a "Chritsin Nation" unless one discusses Christianity
politically, as in a theocracy. This is because the US is a political body, not a social body.