The Second Great Awakening instilled the concept of Christianity and its ideals into mainstream "American" public. Church attendance sky-rocketed, allowing priests and pastors to spread their views and ideals to a much larger audience. Religion, exclusively Christianity, began to seep into all facets of "American" life. Religion and church-going became a social staple for those yearning to be atop the social hierarchy.
Unfortunately, with the Christianization of the public came the Christianization of the government. Despite our great strengths with the separation of church and state, religion still managed to become a large part of politics, and remains one today. With such factions as todays religious right, which has a draconic influence on "American" politics, especially in regards to the Republican party of which the religious right is part of the base, our politics is not what the founding fathers dreamed of while conceiving our nation.
I don't see any need for religion in our politics, or in mainstream society. I ascribe to my own beliefs and I typically do not share them publicly. Our society is not a welcoming environment to other religions, no matter how much we wish to convince ourselves otherwise. Christianity is obviously the dominant religion, and there isn't room for others.
Jake,
ReplyDeleteBig claims, as may be appropriate in this sort of forum. From these might comes a question to pursue in your projects this semester. It might be a question about the possibility of preventing religion (as in the convictions that inform voters in contrast to churches' formal lobbying, for example) out of politics or it might have to do with the ways religion has or has not been significant in non-governmental organizations that contribute to public life.
gotta run,
LDL