In case you haven\u2019t noticed a significant amount of people think something is wrong with America.\u00a0 Now, it\u2019s hard to believe that anyone really takes this idea seriously, because when you think about it, really think about it, what changes actually get made?\u00a0 Are there still uncharged inmates at Guantanamo? Do we still have the largest inmate population in the world? Nuclear weapons\u2026are they still around? Wealthy elites still around gaining their money at the expense of inadequately paid and protected labor?\u00a0 America still sending troops all around the world whenever and wherever and not seeking UN approval unless it\u2019s helpful? Any new gun laws around or any kind of legislation get passed seeking to prevent further harms?\u00a0 Still the largest homeless population in the industrialized world? How about immigration\u2026any helpful legislation passed there\u2026have we stopped separating families yet?<\/p>\n
So, just some suggestions among many that could be offered above.\u00a0 It would seem like we have some things that we could arguably work on a bit. And yet. And yet we have not seen much if any substantive movement on a lot of the above issues.\u00a0 This is why it becomes difficult to take ourselves seriously.<\/p>\n
Ben Douthat in his book Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics<\/em> wants to help us understand why we think something might be wrong with America and in doing so it just might increase the chances of getting some movement on the above issues. Maybe.<\/p>\n As you might guess from his book title, his suggestion of this \u201cwrongness\u201d in American society has to do with religion \u2013 specifically, skewed and or absent religion.\u00a0 Douthat suggests conservatives believe it is due to falling away from the Founders Faith, to being bullied into secularization, to diverting from Manifest Destiny type scenarios, to a loss of moral framework that Alexis de Tocqueville predicted so long ago.[1]<\/a> Liberals suggest that it\u2019s due to draconian Christianness, to American Theocracy, basically just to too much \u201cpiety and zeal.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Of course, these positions between the two camps appear to be direct opposites, but Douthat writes that they have more in common than might be expected.\u00a0 Yes, there are problems with both too much and too little religion, but the primary problem isn\u2019t this.\u00a0 The primary problem is not about much or little, but about bad; it\u2019s about bad religion.\u00a0 In a bit of hyperbole on my part, Douthat writes that Pseudo-Christianities are popping up all over and no one knows what they\u2019re doing in relation to what he notes as traditional Christianity.\u00a0 He hits hard, writing, \u201cit\u2019s\u2026a place where traditional Christian teachings have been warped into justifications for solipsism and anti-intellectualism, jingoism and utopianism, selfishness and greed.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n In the midst and the end however, Douthat offers some hope.\u00a0 He writes a meaningful and simultaneously hilarious statement, \u201cThe history of Christianity has always featured unexpected resurrections.\u201d[4]<\/a> Christianity has managed to metamorphosize in all kinds of cultures while still maintaining its core integrity. Ages of crises have been followed by ages of renewal and G.K. Chesterton has noted that while many times \u201cthe Faith has to all appearance gone to the dogs [in the end] it was the dog that died.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Douthat shows that new revitalizing movements are taking the place of decrepit structures.\u00a0 New people are replacing those that have passed on.\u00a0 Behold, once again, a new day dawns for the perpetual phoenix that is Christianity.<\/p>\n The question for each of us is where do we fall in this? Are we part of the hindrance or part of creative new ways forward that yet remain faithful to the core of what came before?<\/p>\n