BY ROBERT A. SIRICO
Tuesday, December 25, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST
As we prepare to celebrate Christmas--a religious holiday that is also
a national holiday--it is worth remembering what George Washington said in
his farewell address about American religion:
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable supports. . . . Where is
the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of
religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of
investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the
supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may
be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar
structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national
morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
Here the first American president put his finger on an important
difference between the role of religion in the U.S. and that professed and
practiced by the likes of the Taliban. In many parts of the world,
religion inspires despotism, unending bloodshed, and war; but here, many
faiths, each vigorous in its truth-claims, live at peace with each other
and form the foundation of society.
The difference is that American faiths are reconciled to freedom,
and indeed serve as a bulwark of that freedom. It is a fiction of the
Enlightenment that equates any claim to truth or objective standards of
morality with the version of Islam promoted by the Taliban, which denies
any distinction between religious and civil law. In fact this distinction
lies at the core of American culture, and Western civilization itself.
That there is a distinction between religious authority and state power
has been a constant line of thought from the ancient Hebraic world (in the
separation of the religious from the civil courts) to our own, which came
to be embodied in the American idea of religious pluralism. Jesus endorsed
this concept when he said: "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto
God what is God's" (Matthew 22:11).
This does not mean a complete separation between the two. In our own
society, religious faith undergirds pluralist political and cultural
institutions.
Faith-inspired action has been especially evident in recent months. In
the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans displayed astounding
levels of generosity, donating $1.3 billion to the victims. Nor was this
unusual. Two percent of American GDP, or $203 billion, is voluntarily
donated to charity each year, a level of giving that has been stable for
40 years.
Americans give more to charity than people in any other nation, with
the possible exception of Israel. Clearly, prosperity and generosity are
not inherently at odds in American culture. Religiously active people give
two-thirds of all charitable dollars in the U.S. donating 3.4% of their
incomes annually, while people who do not profess or practice a faith give
less than 1.5%.
Many commentators have said that Sept. 11 inspired a return to God.
Indeed worship attendance spiked upward in the weeks following, and
settled back down afterward, prompting other commentators to debunk the
announcement of a religious revival. The truth is that Americans have
always been solidly religious, even in the midst of an ostensibly secular
culture, and that is likely to increase in these unstable times. As one
example among many, a Harris poll conducted in 1998 revealed that 94% of
adults believe in God, 89% believe in heaven, 73% believe in the Devil,
and 73% believe in hell. Polls show that weekly church attendance in the
U.S. increased from 1939 (41%) to 2001 (47%), and remains the highest in
any developed country.
The commercial sector is not often considered when it comes to
assessing the impact of faith on society. But in modern American life, it
would be an enormous mistake to overlook the huge commercial success of
religious books, and religious media generally. Last year, religious book
sales hit an all-time high of $2.15 billion in revenue, making overtly
religious books (including religious fiction) the second biggest category
after general fiction, accounting for 16% of all books sold. The National
Religious Broadcasters Guide lists 1,635 radio station, 103 film
producers, 430 periodicals, 224 book publishers. 45 television networks,
267 music publishers and 307 television stations. That religious faith has
found a strong market niche, rather than dominating the mainstream, may
reflect not the secularization of society, but rather an increased
specialization of the media market.
More broadly, another example of American faith at work can be seen in
the holiday season itself, when shoppers spend billions of dollars in
order to give gifts to others. This isn't necessarily "consumerism" so
much as an application of a charitable and generous spirit within the
framework of prosperity made possible through freedom. While retaining a
necessary caution with regard to materialism and commercialization of
religion, we might also reflect on the genius of the evangelical
enterprise that it has so well adapted itself to the institutions of our
times, just as did it when living under pagan rule in the early Christian
centuries, in order to spread the message of the Christ-child.
Hence, the despairing attitude toward religion in public found among
some religious leaders today has little basis in public opinion as such.
That is not to say that there are not disturbing aspects to the role of
faith in American life. Public institutions, whether in government or the
media, have been notoriously unfriendly to faith, and hardly ever take
account of the role that religion plays in the lives of most Americans,
except to criticize it.
The greater problem, however, rests with believers themselves. What
American faith possesses in its commercial vigor it often lacks in
theological seriousness. Most popular Christian literature, for example,
is superficial as compared with the great popular writings of saints and
theologians of the past. The line between religious writing and the pop
psychology is increasingly difficult to detect.
Perhaps that too will begin to change. Since Sept. 11, I have received
numerous reports from around the country of a marked changed in the tone
of homilies and prayers in houses of worship, and new recognition that we
do, after all, find often ourselves "mourning and weeping in this vale of
tears," in the words of an old prayer. If the American expression of faith
is going to provide solace and strength, it must reclaim its robust roots
that address how one may be able to walk through the valley of the shadow
of death and yet fear no evil.
We have no official religion in the U.S., nor do our public
institutions require or enforce a particular belief in public policy. This
is as it should be. The American religious tradition depends on its free
acceptance by believers; it is a faith that is not imposed. At the same
time, it is time that we recognize that it is impossible to comes to terms
with horror and evil without serious reflection on transcendent meaning.
In troubled times, there may yet be a still, small voice that speaks
peace to the human heart. A life of faith ought to enable us to maintain a
certain spiritual equilibrium in good times and bad, reveal to us the
transcendent potential that exists in routine chores and obligations. To
discover the Divine hidden in the most ordinary and vulnerable of human
conditions is what this season is about. The real capitol of religious
faith is and always has been the heart of the believer.
Father Sirico is president of the Acton Institute for the Study of
Religion and Liberty in Grand Rapids, Mich.
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