> > Any hypotheses as to why the U.S. should be so uniquely plagued by
>religiosity?
>
>I wouldn't say uniquely, but certainly the US, in general, is one of the more
>fundamentalist nations around. It probably has to do with the split
>face of the
>democratic ethos that serves as the constitutional ground. Religion is
>assumed to be true, with full authorial powers and legitimacy, but at the same
>time no legislation may be passed with direct appeal to "religious" reasoning
>(at least according to the books). So one the one hand you have the truth of
>God, on the other, you can't proclaim this truth from the white house.
Hmm, not exactly. You can't proclaim specific denominations from the WH, but appeals to the God of your choice are part of the legitimizing boilerplate of political discourse. I think every State of the Union address since Reagan's first has ended with some variant of "God bless America." And it says "In God We Trust" on our money, joining our twin national passions of piety and the dollar.
> The
>result: religion becomes a primary vehicle for the establishing of
>counter-cultrual discourses ("the return of the repressed"). There
>would likely
>be less religious "crackpots" if the church and state were re-united because
>then no one would take the theocracy seriously... and the grounds for
>counter-culture ("transgression") would change. Which is better? I dunno.
It'd be nice if family values-style religion had less influence on policy, but unfortunately it has plenty.
Doug