The Desolate American Religion

“What are we to say about this national acknowledgment of God which because of our religious pluralism cannot have more content than a vague theism? It is easy to dismiss it as insincere or as little more than a harmless anachronism or to see special irony in the fact that the words, ‘In God we trust,’ appear on our coins, and that the word ‘God’ appears so frequently in political perorations. The association of this theism with current popular forms of religious reassurance and especially with the current desire for religious sanctions for the American way of life has caused many theologians and religious leaders to criticize it very sharply. The soundest criticism is that in practice we often find ourselves engaged in the ritual of a third faith—not Christianity or Judaism. As Will Herberg says, we have an American religion which may begin as a common denominator of our historic faiths but which becomes in practice a substitute faith. This American faith is often nationalistic and it can become chauvinistic, though, for the most part, we have escaped that. It lacks emphasis upon the transcendent judgment of God. It is often a folk-religion with some Christian overtones. The association of the current revival of religious interest with the justification of America as against atheistic Communism, and the fact that this religious interest coincides with great emphasis on social conformity and on material prosperity increase the religious distortion that is involved. So enhanced are our national self-righteousness in relation to the world and our national complacency in relation to ourselves”

-  John C. Bennett, Christians and the State, pp. 6-7