Jumper_ (1000+ posts)     Fri Nov-28-03

Original message
Why is America by far the most religious industrialized nation?

Does anyone know why this has happened? This is really hurting us. If America was as religious as any other industrialized nation the Democratic Party would be dominant right now...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=790569&mesg_id=790569

It's always interesting to observe the bigotry of the Left.  As if the US is conservative because of widespread religion, instead of the other way around. Practicing the religion of your family is conservative, the broadest most general meaning of the word.

damn, son, why don't you leave those poor folks over at DU alone hehehe.  

You can read this book [0:)]
Allitt, Patrick: Religion in America Since 1945

Allitt's narrative brilliantly explores how and why the U.S. is both the most religious and the most secular of the industrialized nations in the world.



Religion in America Since 1945
A History

Patrick Allitt

"A work of masterful and exacting scholarship that reads like a page-turner. Tracing the varities of religious experience in the United States from the dropping of the atom bomb in 1945 to '9/11,' Allitt offers a thoughtful and provocative account of all manner of American belief and religious space-from Billy Graham to Timothy O'Leary, from Eero Saarinen's M.I.T. chapel to Levittown's ticky-tacky suburban "church gymnasiums," from Paul Tillich to Louis Farrakan. Allitt's narrative brilliantly explores how and why the U.S. is both the most religious and the most secular of the industrialized nations in the world. This is a scholarly work of the first order that is a rollicking good read!"
–Mark S. Massa, S.J., Co-Director of the Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University and author of Catholics and American Culture: Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and the Notre Dame Football Team

"Allitt has provided us with a shrewd , savvy introduction to a subject of bewildering complexity. And the writing is terrific."
–John T. McGreevy, author of Catholicism and American Freedom: A History and John A. O'Brien associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame

"No single book can render the whole landscape of modern American religion. But Patrick Allitt has given us an exceptionally lucid overview in this humane, witty, and gracefully written volume. Approaching religion in the genial spirit of a William James, Allitt seeks less to pass judgment on his subjects than to describe them fairly, and explore their place in the texture of modern American life. The resulting book not only serves as a stimulating introduction to an essential but poorly understood aspect of recent American history. It also kindles our curiosity and wonder at the inexhaustible variety of human thought and experience."
–Wilfred M. McClay, holder of the SunTrust Chair of Humanities, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and author of The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America

"Patrick Allitt has done an enviable job of piecing together a coherent picture of the complex developments that have characterized American religion since World War II. I am especially impressed with his judicious selection of topics. The book is even-handed in its coverage of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, and is particularly helpful in showing how religious leaders responded to major political events, cultural change, and new technology. Sociologists and political scientists, as well as historians and scholars of religion, will find a lot of valuable information in this book."
–Robert Wuthnow, Director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University and author of The Restructuring of American Religion

Moving far beyond the realm of traditional "church history," Patrick Allitt surveys the broad canvas of American religion since World War II. Idetifying the major trends and telling moments within both major denominations and other less formal religious movements, he asks how these religious groups have shaped, and been shaped by, some of the most important and divisive issues and events of the last half century: the Cold War; the Civil Rights Movement; the Vietnam War; feminism and the sexual revolution; abortion rights; and the antinuclear and environmentalist movements, among many others.

Allitt argues that the boundaries between religious and political discourse have become increasingly blurred in the last fifty years. Having been divided along denominational lines in the early postwar period, religious Americans had come by the 1980s to be divided along political lines instead, as they grappled with the challenges of modernity and secularism. Partially because of this politicization and the growing influence of Asian, Latino, and other ethnic groups, the United States is anomalous among the Western industrialized nations, as church membership and religious affiliation generally increased during this period. Religion in America Since 1945 is a masterful analysis of this dynamism and diversity and an ideal starting point for any exploration of the contemporary religious scene.

Contents

Preface    
1. Anxious Victory: 1945---1952    
The War's End    
The American Religious Landscape    
Cold War of the Spirit    
Spiritual Peace in the 1940s    
2. Religion and Materialism: 1950---1970    
Fighting Godless Communism    
Religious Intellectuals in the 1950s    
Eisenhower Spirituality    
Church Buildings    
3. Religion, Respect, and Social Change: 1955---1968    
African American Religion    
The Civil Rights Movement Begins    
White Christians and Civil Rights    
Nonviolence in Decline    
Mormon America    
4. New Frontiers and Old Boundaries: 1960---1969    
The Catholic President    
The Supreme Court and Religion in Schools    
Vietnam, Part I    
Radical Theology    
Catholic Reform    
5. Shaking the Foundations: 1963---1972    
American Judaism    
Vietnam, Part II    
Catholic Challenges to Church Discipline    
African American Religion After King    
6. Alternative Religious Worlds: 1967---1982    
Space Travel    
Feminism and Ministry    
Feminist Theology    
New Religions, ``Cults,'' and Their Critics    
Asian Spirituality in American Dress    
7. Evangelicals and Politics: 1976---1990    
Jimmy Carter and the Evangelical Presidency    
The New Christian Right and the Reagan Campaign    
The Abortion Controversy    
Wives and Mothers    
8. The Christian Quest for Justice and Wisdom: 1980---1995    
The Antinuclear Movement    
Sanctuary    
Creationism and Evolution    
Christian Academies and Home Schooling    
9. Profits, Profligates, and Prophets: 1987---1995    
The Evangelical Scandals    
A Minister in the White House?    
American Islam    
10. The New World Order: 1989---1999    
End of the Cold War    
Religion and Violence    
Environmental Spirituality    
Megachurches    
11. Fears, Threats, and Promises: 1990---2000    
Homosexuality and Religion    
Promise Keepers    
Millennial Expectation    
12. The New Millennium: 2001    
Religion at Ground Zero    
Conclusion    





I hope this helps you, if not, I apologize, I tried. [0:)]