America is the most Christianised country in the world, having the most number of Christian churches per capita of any other nation.
According Berna Research Group’s survey of last April, the number of those Americans who regularly attend religious services though dropped from 49% in 1991 to 31% in 1998, is still higher than the corresponding figure in other industrialized countries, which is only 10% in Europe and 20% in Canada.
According to CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Sep.
21-22, more than sixty-four percent of Americans say religion is very important in their lives.
But despite such a great following of religion, it officially remained separated from politics.
Though religion has always been on the cards of Republican conservatives, but the manner in which religion came to tinge the political environment after the W Bush assumed presidency, especially after the September 11 terrorism, warrants that a new era in American politics is in the offing, with much likelihood of pulling down the wall of separation between church and state.
Hours after the terrorist assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, George W. Bush invoked religion, quoting Psalm 23, to comfort the nation, and thereafter went on blending his policies with religious manifestations.
Father of President Bush in an interview with NBC Nightly News” acknowledged that his son’s religious manifestation was based on his genuine beliefs.
Many public figures, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and McMillon were quick to conclude that the Sept. 11 terrorism occurred because America had turned away from religious values, expressing hopes that such incidents would ultimately help revive religion in America.
Though donning the raiment of religiosity during the mayhem like that of September11 is not unusual, and may not be taken seriously, but the way the Bush administration politicised religion even before September 11, leaves one with no doubt that hectic efforts are being made to bring religion to the forefront of politics.
The House of Representatives has already voted 233-198 on July19 in favour of H.R. 7, a bill backed by the Bush administration that would permit religious groups to run social services with federal funds even despite the fact that the bill seriously blurs the constitutional line between church and state, and hence constitutes a clear violation of the constitution, the very first amendment of which refrains the federal government from funding any religious group.
While no one doubts that the present administration is determined to topsy-turvy the status quo by introducing religion in state affairs, substantial majority fears that such religious ventures will create a stifling mess not only in America, but also in the world.
In her book, “Sleeping with extra-terrestrials,” Wendy Kaminer argues that although the preoccupation with the religion is relatively harmless, there is cause for concern when our private irrational convictions begin to spill over into the realm of public life and public policy.
“ American society is more prone to the perils of religiosity than any other nation.
Religion as it exists in the United States is not at all monolithic or homogeneous.
Among the different religions or even within the denominations of particular religions, the US hosts 3000 faith groups, with 16 religious groups claiming more than a million followers and more than half a million churches, temples and mosques.
Replacing the secular constitution with religious one will have earth-shaking impact on the American Society.
How can the right of other religions be safeguarded if self- proclaimed universal Christianity is enshrined in the constitution.
There is no denying the fact that in a true theocratic state no other religion is allowed to flourish.
Can a religious US government coexist with other religion? What will happen if such a government rushes to leer at all the hostile religions? Obviously, it will rob the hostile religious forces of horn and may embark on putting a spoke in the wheel of US.
It will be very difficult to impose a uniform religious culture on such a diverse society.
Moreover, since a larger section of American society has grown to be secular, transforming it into a religious pattern will not be a smooth one.
How the libertarians, the secularists, the atheists and freethinkers will respond to religious set up is not too vague to imagine.
A fierce resistance will be offered if the government decides to implement the religious law.
And it is crystal clear that the American society can hardly withstand a tumultuous and riotous reign.
Here an incidental killing or disturbance panics the whole society.
Once civil disturbance ensues, enemies will be there to fish in the troubled water, with catastrophic impact on economic activities too.
The Christian fundamentalists are no better than their Muslim and Jewish counterparts.
Grace Halsell in her book, “Forcing God’s hand” draws a clear picture of the political agenda of the Christian fundamentalists, saying that they wouldn’t repent over their actions if they cause a third world war.
They would rather call it God’s will.
The American Christians who raised $100 millions seemed more enthusiastic in spending the money for rebuilding the Holy Temple on a place where the Muslim Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of Rock stand.
So if religiosity in the US is unleashed, they will rarely coexist with other religions like Islam, Judaism, atheism, Wicca and Satanism.
While in the mainstream religious fanaticism may not be a stifling issue, we have seen in America extreme form of religious fanaticism in the extreme fringe wing of the anti-abortion movements, with the bombing of abortion clinics, and some militia movements like the so-called Christian identity movement, which have caused brutal terrorism.
Fanaticism is found even among highly educated cadres.
In Alabama, for example, public school teachers harassed Jewish students by forcing them to pray to Jesus and forbade them to wear the Star of David.
In another incident, a schoolteacher instigated some students to demonise an eleven-year-old Lutheran child in a Baptist school by calling him a Devil-worshipper only because he showed indifference to participating in Bible classes.
Once religion is blended with politics, the US, as Wendy Kaminer says, “ might be heading into a period of really ugly sectarian rivalries and even the religious repression of minorities.
Many intellectuals of high caliber have expressed the fears that once the mighty power dons the raiment of religiosity, the so lugubrious clash of civilisations may materialise.
One may note the image of the US in the present world.
While its economic system has enraged many, it hasn’t drawn as many enemies as its presumed religious policy has won.
Even though religion rarely tinged US foreign policy, the hostile world took it as religious enemy.
The Islamic regime in Iran, Sudan, Labia called the US the great satan and hence their enemy.
Osama bin Laden isn’t the only man who avows to fight holy war against the US.
What will be the degree of such religious animosity if the US renovates its foreign policies on the basis of religion? It is here that a sane mind may see imprudence in the efforts by political oligarchy to prop up the religious groups, which are fervently vowing to “reclaim America for Christ”
Here even a relentless optimist can’t avoid being skeptical about motives of those who want to bring religion to America.
The skepticism increases when someone sees the religious incumbents propagating relentless pessimism about the US.