Sunday, February 3, 2008
Manifest Destiny
I found Manifest Destiny a really good read. It wasn't as exciting as the other two, but being the history buff I am, I enjoyed it nonetheless. I had always known about the heavy undertones of the Puritans, but Stephanson does a great job pointing them out, along with the Manifest Destiny aura that continues somewhat to this days. I guess I have just been taking history as it is, and not really thinking critically or about the religious significance of certain things. Seeing how America is as separated from religion as possible I never thought about the religious fervor of our founders. I also renewed my reasons why I don't like Andrew Jackson, but that's just me.
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Could you clarify or substantiate the statement that America is as separated from religion as possible? As far as I'm concerned, the United States government and its practices are the most religious-based of any Western democracy. What else explains the incessant Christian moralizing about abortion, gay marriage, our punishment-based prison system... Or how about the general opinions that Americans hold toward sex, alcohol, and those other fun things? Straight out of the Protestant work ethic. The UK is the only Western industrialized nation that comes close to us, and that's because they have the Protestant background as well. But there were people who were too nuts even for them. And they became Americans.
Let me clarify then, the US has this aura of separation of church and state. And for the most part, I have seen the religious pull of the US being minimal to other nations in the world.
Minimal? The US frames its foreign policy like a messaniac jihad against the infidels. All throughout our history we have framed our nation as a safe haven for Christian values, defending against the brown people who inhabit the outer reaches. The war in Iraq was a sheer exercise in Christian domination. If Iraq believed in jesus we wouldn't have attacked. You wouldn't be able to convince the American populace to attack a fellow Christian nation.
Yes, we have an Establishment Clause forbidding formal government endorsement of a religion. More significantly, though, we have the Free Exercise Clause that grants religious groups sacred cow status to do whatever they want.
France has an official religion; would you say that the French are more or less religious than Americans? How about the French government vs. the American government? A small example: French elections are held on Sunday because it's a day off work. Can you imagine the U.S. holding elections on a Sunday? "Free Exercise Clause violation!" they'd scream.
And the religious pull of the U.S.? Though certainly less than theocracies, to make the statement that "America is as separated from religion as possible" means that you're also comparing the U.S. to postreligious Europe. Even the U.K., which I would argue is still only on the way to postreligiousity, is more secular than the U.S.
Why else would gay marriage still be banned here? How about a woman's right to choose? Why is nudity banned from TV but not violence? How many non-Protestant Presidents have there been? Why is a candidate's religion presented as an issue in campaigns? Why is being an atheist one of the single worst-polling traits for a Presidential candidate to have? How secular can we be?
The United States is a Protestant nation, through and through. We just happen to be in denial about it.
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