> From: Cassiopeoa DeVine <cassiopeoa at googlemail.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] religion in the US
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 6:05 AM
> As a European I find it strange enough that (especially
> during the
> elections) that in politics in general religion is so
> important.
> I have found it helpful to think that the famed
> "Founding Fathers" were
> religious fugitives and had to hold on to their faith
> almost as a matter of
> survival. Somehow this has reached right into the present
> (maybe because the
> FF are remembered fondly).
> Even though I was raised Catholic, went to a catholic
> pre-school and had
> religion in school for fifteen years I was always taught a
> moderate faith, a
> questioning way of looking at religions in general and even
> Catholicism in
> particular (my teachers were church approved teachers as is
> the way in my
> country).
> I find it - to say the least - strange that to this day
> religion (whatever
> faith) plays such a big role not even in every day life but
> as well in a
> social context (politics, economy and the like), and
> increasingly - it seems
> - influences the way morals and basic human rights are set
> (for example the
> abortion issue).
>
> Could anyone from overseas enlighten me as to why this
> might be? If my guess
> about the roots is tainted?
[WS:] Try Richard Hofstadter "Anti-intellectualism in the American Life" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism_in_American_Life He argues that populist religiosity and anti-intellectualism it promoted are the defining characteristics of the American psyche.
Two observations are in order. First, given the immigrant character and ethnic diversity of the American society, religion, especially x-tianity was the only "glue" available that held the US society together. In Europe, by contrast, such "glue" was provided by nationalism and national culture, which rendered religion obsolete as a nation-building force. That may expalin the pervasiveness of religiosity in the US society vis a vis Europe.
Second, religion is a system of thought that provides certitude in everyday life. But to fulfill this function, it must rests on certain unquestionable assumptions and axioms that are accepted as given and cannot be subject to any doubt or even discussion (you should have gotten that from your Catholic education.) In European religiosity, such foundations were provided by the institution of church and its authorities (cf. the pope and his supposed "infallibility" in the Catholic church) and scholars.
However, given the populist and anti-intellectual nature of the American society (much of which was refuges from persecution by religious authorities in Europe) - such solution to the certitude problem was not well received here. Consequently, Americans came with a different solution to the certitude in their religion problem - more compatible with their populism and anti-intellectualism. It was fundamentalism - or literal common-sense interpretation of the holy scripture. It may look laughable to any educated person, especially of an European descent, but it plays the same role as the religious scholarship, inquistion, and ecclesiastical authority did in European religiosity - it is a conventional "common sense" final authority that infuses certitude to religious discourse.
Wojtek