An interesting factoid from the current First Things. At the Revolution about one in five Americans belonged to and regularly attending a Church. By the Nineteenth Century that number had risen to one in three. Today it is slightly more than one in two.
Certainly Lincoln said things that would be hard to imagine a President saying today:
"My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them."
Or this from Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823:
"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors."
America has moved far from the faith of its founders -- perhaps a good thing, all in all.
6 comments:
David Gergens has a telling explanation of why he switched from the Republicans. Although he worked as a Nixon speech writer he came to see, as the years passed, that even Nixon would be seen as much too far to the left for today's Repugs. Gergens also was enormously troubled by the absence of social compassion within the Republican movement despite the enormity of the suffering of the lowest tier of American society. He claims that Nixon would have been just as much wounded by the state of today's Republicans.
It's sad that I don't see any intelligent Republican advocating for his or her party and country. Instead, I just see Sarah Palin as the so-called model of success for the Republicans.
"America has moved far from the faith of its founders -- perhaps a good thing, all in all. "
As usual you get to exactly the wrong conclusion.
Religion is way past its best-before-date.
Errh, Anon, reread my post -- America is getting more religious -- and I am not saying that's good...
Whether they are more religious or not - the question is separation of church and state.
Is religion growing because of religious marketing, megga churches, etc.?
Lyn
I think there could be other socio-economic factors that influence the rise. e.g. industrial revolution; urbanization, the fact that most people are not dispered in rural areas and/or farming 7 days a week, ease of transportation, etc.
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