Religion & America

I’ve been reading and seeing in the media and elsewhere a lot of talk about religion in the USA. A big question is just how religious is the US and how much does it influence public policy? I’ve found that the numbers reported tend to vary wildly by source and interpretation. To quote Mark Twain - “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” I suspect the numbers are lower than many realize. With the number of true fundies even smaller.

What The Numbers Say

If you look at the wiki page on religion in the United States, it shows the inherent conflict in the numbers as reported. You have numbers ranging from 75%, 85%, down to 60% believing in a god/deity of some kind. And when you get into practicing the numbers get even wilder. You have numbers from 41% to 26% to 21%. Why the disparity? It’s like when you ask a kid of they do drugs, most will lie so they don’t look bad. Societal pressures are a powerful thing, and we all want to look like good, upstanding citizens usually. If you are a person who believes in a god of some kind but is not such a good, outstanding member attendance-wise then lying about it in a poll may alleviate some guilt. You also have people who will lie to mess with the poll, and people who will exaggerate their actual behavior to look better. This is why these numbers are probably inflated.

Nothing to See Here Folks

Why do I say this? Well looking at the current state of affairs in the US today bears this out. If you look at the laws of the land and, the various court decisions that have been handed down you find something reassuring. They are overwhelmingly unbiased towards religions and heavily biased towards limiting their interaction with the government. They tend to reinforce the separation of church and state.

If you look at the benchmark issues it clearly shows this to be true. Abortion is still legal and widely available for those who choose to have them. Gay rights is still advancing, look at California and the recent same-sex marriage decision. Creationism is not widely taught as science, the attempts to do so have tended to have those choosing this to be tossed out by the public. There are also other, smaller signs of this to be found in daily life.

There is still no religious test to holding office from a legal standpoint. It is debatable if a declared atheist could win a large election, but that has nothing to do with the law itself. The so called Blue Laws, while prevalent in the south still are mostly being rolled back elsewhere. And if you look at the Pledge of Allegiance, the god line was added to be anti-communist, not pro religion. Now while all this is good; of course, it means we cannot just take it for granted, like any right this must be protected. In the case of the US, the largest protection is the supreme law of the land - the U.S. Constitution.

The Constitution itself has two provisions regarding religion.

From the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

From Article VI:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

These two parts clearly state that there can be no test and have done much to prevent any religious institution from taking over or from being taken over by the government.

This is why when looking at the state of affairs today I don’t have a great worry about the US turning into a theocracy. While we must remain vigilant there is no immediate threat of the religious right taking over really. Anyone saying this is either trying to drum up ratings in the media, delusional, or trying to whip up some supporters.

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