Friday, November 14, 2003

Fun Facts About Religion

It's a favorite claim of the Christian Right that the Founders' generation in America was incredibly pious and intended to incorporate the Christian religion into the government. For a little reality-check on that idea, here's an excerpt from the 1964 book Anti-intellectualism in American Life by the historian Richard Hofstadter. Speaking of the colonial and Revolutionary periods , he writes:

<< The essence of American denominationalism is that churches became voluntary organizations. The layman, living in a society in which no church enjoyed the luxury of compulsory membership and in which even traditional, inherited membership was often extraordinarily weak, felt free to make a choice as to which among several denominations should have his allegiance. In the older church pattern [in Europe], the layman was born into a church [and] was often forced by the state to stay in it... The American layman, however, was not simply born into a denomination nor did he inherit certain sacramental forms; the denomination was a voluntary society which he chose to join often after undergoing a transforming religious experience.

<< There was nothing fictional about this choice. So fluid had been the conditions of American life toward the end of the eighteenth century, and so disorganizing the consequences of the Revolution, that perhaps as many as ninety per cent of the Americans were unchurched in 1790 [my emphasis]. >>

We tend to think of previous times as more religious, and our own times as becoming more and more secular. And that perception in accurate in many ways. But some assumptions along those lines come too easily. What this says is that most Americans - far and away most of them - at the time the Constituion came into effect, were not regular participants in an organized church.

So when the Roy Moores of the world start talking about the piety of the Founders' generation, it's worth remembering that evangelists in those days were so busy trying to get people to start coming to church at all that they didn't give a high priority erectings public monuments to the Ten Commandments.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting...

Anonymous said...

I think it's important to point out the difference between being "churched" and being "pious." Just because there wasn't a lot of church attendance doesn't mean people weren't worshipping God in their own homes...That's pretty much all I've got to say- I don't know a whole lot about the subject. :)
BTW- I just stumbled onto this site, so if you'd like to respond back, you may just want to email me- elizabeth_ashley44@hotmail.com.

Anonymous said...

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Addendum to Commandment 2
The oppressed also include blacks, minorities, people of color, gays, the disabled and people of different religions. Give them all equal rights.

Posted by scott at 12:58 PM 0 comments  
New Commandments
New Commandments
Here are some more commandments that we can ignore:

1. Heal the sick. All over the world. Not just America.

2. Free the oppressed. In Tibet, Burma, Palestine, America and all over the world. Free women too. Give them equal rights.

3. Help the poor. All over the world and in America too.

4. Protect the unborn.

5. Take care of the earth. All of God's art.

6. Have mercy on all. Including prisoners and criminals. No more torture or inhumane treatment of any kind. No capital punishment. We are all murderers and criminals. For example, most Americans killed 600,000 Iraqis over a lie.

7. Do justice to all. Including the weak and powerless. Including the victims of crime.

8. Try to be fair. Find the correct balance between mercy and justice.

9. Try to find the correct balance. In all things.

10. Be nonviolent. Violence should be the very last resort. Currently it is not and never has been. Maybe it was a last resort in World War II. But it was the harsh reparations after World War I that eventually led to World War II. Follow the examples of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Aung Sung Su Chi and Corozone Aquino.