Ben Knight reported this story on Sunday, May 26, 2013 07:01:00

ELIZABETH JACKSON: When Australians travel to the US, it can feel incredibly like a familiar place, for a country they've never been to, on the other side of the world.



We are immersed in American culture from our earliest years: we speak the same language; use their slang; we know the names of their sporting teams, their politicians, even their brands of soft drinks and snacks that have never been sold here in Australia.



But every now and then, there's a reminder to even English-speaking visitors that America is very much a foreign country.



Our North America correspondent Ben Knight has this report from Washington.



BEN KNIGHT: I'm no stranger to the United States. I've been here about four or five times in my life, and that includes including six months in LA (Los Angeles) as an exchange student in the 80s, and you can imagine how much fun that was.



So I genuinely love this place, and its people. They are incredibly generous people, they're polite to a fault, and they're nowhere near as ignorant or bombastic as most Australians would like to think they are.



So when we moved into our house in a suburb of Washington, I knew that sooner or later someone was going to knock on the door - one of the neighbours welcoming us to the street.



And of course that's exactly what happened. The lady across the road came over, she introduced herself, gave us some good tips on local supermarkets and parks, and then gave us a folder with some sheets of information.



Inside were flyers for the local churches. She wasn't recruiting, or proselytising - she was just giving us information so that we could choose the one that was most appropriate to us.



To her, this was just stuff that she assumed we'd want and need to know, like where to get the freshest vegies, or which night to put the bins out.



But it was a bit uncomfortable for us, because like a lot of Australians, we don't go to church.



But we didn't feel like we could or should tell her that, perhaps because we felt it might have marked us out as being a bit odd - people who didn't quite fit in. Much the same as we might regard someone in Australia who knocks on your door after you've just moved in to your house and gives you a bunch of religious pamphlets as being a bit odd themselves.



But of course over here, you hear about God everywhere: in the Pledge of Allegiance that my kids recite at school every morning, in the newsletter their science teacher sends home, in patriotic songs, in athletes' news conferences, at the end of presidential speeches, and of course, in disasters.



Especially in disasters.



And as you would be well aware, there was a big one in Oklahoma last week.



We arrived in Oklahoma the morning after the tornado hit, as we wandered around interviewing people, I talked with a woman whose family home had just been destroyed. And she was telling me about the amazing survival of her father, who'd been inside this house when the storm hit.



TORNADO SURVIVOR: He was in the closet. The only room with the roof left on it, so…



BEN KNIGHT: How is he now?



TORNADO SURVIVOR: Fine - walked away without a scratch.



BEN KNIGHT: What I wanted to know next was his story of survival, how on earth he had managed to walk away without a scratch when his home was lying there in splinters.



But that's not how she interpreted my question. And listen to how quickly she answers it.



BEN KNIGHT: How did that happen?



TORNADO SURVIVOR: God.



BEN KNIGHT: God saved her father's life. Now, sceptics might point out a problem with the logic here.



And I won't go into it too deeply, because that's really not what this piece is supposed to be about.



Let me just point out that nine kids and 15 other adults weren't saved, and leave it at that.



Now Oklahoma is, of course, right in the heart of America's Bible belt, so it's to be expected. People there do not believe in the separation of church and state.



In fact, the neighbouring states, Arkansas and Texas, actually ban atheists from holding any public office. Arkansas goes even further, and says atheists can't testify as witnesses in court.



But the national media, at least, tends to play it pretty secular and straight. Which is why this next clip is so surprising, for two different reasons.



WOLF BLITZER: Well we're happy you're here. You guys did a great job…



BEN KNIGHT: This is one of CNN's big name anchors, Wolf Blitzer, down in Oklahoma last week, interviewing survivor Rebecca Vitsmun about the decision she took that saved her family from the tornado.



WOLF BLITZER: And I guess you've got to thank the Lord, right? Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision?



REBECCA VITSMUN: I, I… I'm actually an atheist.



WOLF BLITZER: Oh, you are - alright.



(Laughter)



BEN KNIGHT: This was an incredibly rare moment on American TV. You can almost hear how uncomfortable she is about pulling Wolf Blitzer up on his assumption.



REBECCA VITSMUN: You know, I don't blame anybody for thanking the Lord.



WOLF BLITZER: Of course not.



BEN KNIGHT: For America's 13 million atheists and agnostics, this was almost a Rosa Parks moment.



Because to them, Rebecca Vitsnum's not only bravely saying the unsayable but she's showing up a supposedly impartial news anchor who tried to bring the hand of God into a natural disaster.



American atheists describe themselves as the most discriminated against group in the country - in workplaces, in schools, even in courtrooms, and especially when it comes to child custody cases.



The idea of an atheist president now is as unthinkable as the idea of a black president might have seemed in the 1950s.



But American atheists had something else to cheer last week in, of all places, the Arizona state legislature.



Instead of opening with the usual prayer, the floor of the chamber was given over to Juan Mendez - an openly atheist member.



He gave a secular address. He told his fellow members not to bow their heads as they usually did, but to look around at each other. He quoted Carl Sagan: "for small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love".



The next day, the floor was given back over to a Christian member, who offered two prayers to make up for the missing one for the day before and offered repentance for having allowed it to happen.



Americans, of course, can be as religious as they want to be. They fought for their independence in a way that Australia never did, and have gone on to create a remarkable country that turned into the world's only superpower.



But it doesn't stop some of us who admire America's celebration of intellect, self-reliance, and creating your own success, from looking on and occasionally scratching our heads.



This is Ben Knight in Washington DC for Correspondents Report.