Faith at Home in America

Einstein has been quoted as saying," science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind." If these words of wisdom from one of the most celebrated scientists are taken seriously by both scientists and religious people, then one can make the statements I am going to assert in this brief piece.

The United States of America is the leading scientific community on the planet. Yet, it is also one of the societies where human beings have not developed total amnesia about the relationship between the natural world and the world of the spirit as understood by the Abrahamic religions on the one hand and by all other beliefs that subscribe to a metaphysical reality, on the other.

This simultaneous coexistence between belief in the world of phenomenon and the world of neumena as formulated by the German Philosopher Immanuel Kant is one thing that would capture an alien visitor from another galaxy. Not only are Americans believers in the power and might of science and technology, but we have also singled ourselves out as majority of people who are not allergic to Divine messages. To put it in another way, I would argue here that Americans are as confident about the reality and effectiveness of their cell phones in the world of phenomenon as their soul phone in the world of heavenly hopes and aspirations. This faith in the power of science and the power of the soul were prominent in the minds and writings of key figures among the leaders of the last century in America. Dr. Martin Luther King confronted the challenges of the Civil Rights Movement by embracing the secular forces of the U.S. constitution as well as the power and soul-inspiring forces of the Bible.

Together, he harnessed their two complementary wells of secular and spiritual inspirations to play psychological judo on his foes and temporary combatants. This strategy was apparently built on the principle that being American mean been a faithful and practical employer of soul-power and constitutional power. What the Pew survey reveals are the belated manifestations of a concentration of historical circumstances that have captured the American imagination since the end of the Civil War.

Since the end of the Civil War Americans have seen this society gone through several major transformations. The Religious landscape, surveyed and described effectively by Pew, has gone through some significant changes in the sense that before the civil war hegemony was clearly visible in the primacy of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP). This hegemony was backed by numbers, talents and linguistic primacy of the English language. The union of these three elements created a society where Protestantism was seen by many as the alpha and the omega of social power and social significance. Since the civil war much has changed. The increase in the number of non-Protestant, non-Anglo-Saxons and their growing contributions to the making of an America that is unique and increasingly different from the original religious and ethnic landscapes. Between the Civil War and the coming to power of President Eisenhower, Catholics and Jews have made remarkable advances in the society and culture of America.

In responding to the findings of the Pew survey, I should state briefly and in passing that what has come to light are the effects of immigration and the changing nature of the dialogue between science and religion in American life. As I wrote some time ago in this blog, religion will not go away and many in the society will pay greater attention to its significance and relevance in their life. Our recent primaries point in this direction.

Indeed, future American historians and social scientists will note with a deal of irony about Governor Romney and his father who both ran for the presidency at different times in American history. Those who later write would say that when Mr. Romney's father ran in a Republican campaign against men like Richard Nixon in the late 1960's, he erred not because of his refusal to acknowledge his personal faith but because of his now poo-pooed statement about been brainwashed at the height of the Vietnam War. His son, unlike his father the former Governor of Michigan in the sixties, suffered electoral defeats at the hands of people who simply found his Mormonism too heavy a burden for their intolerable necks.As far as I know and can now remember, Mormonism was not a primary issue for the father. Americans then were more secular and tolerant because a number of factors and forces combined to make the Mormons and other faith communities useful temporary allies against Marxism and atheism. That community of faith and others had an unwritten memorandum of understanding with the three religious Will Herberg identified then with Americanism. This was particularly strong when the likes of Senator McCarthy railed against atheists and Communists.

We cannot understand and appreciate the impact of the Cold War and the Russian Menace unless and until we bear witness to the fact that during that important moment in American history, the Mormons, Muslims, Buddhists and others here and abroad found themselves courted by American leaders and diplomats in a common cause against the Soviets and communism. The large number of immigrants who came to this country since the beginning of the Cold War cannot be fully located in the religious landscape unless we appreciate the fact that the eighty-plus nationalities within the American Muslim population and the large numbers of ethnic Diasporas that mushroom across the United States of America owe their existence to some degree to the ideological war between the Western and the Eastern blocs.

As a result of immigration and foreign wars that compel relocation for millions of human beings, America's traditional goodwill towards immigration has resulted in a new ethnic arithmetic and the leaders and the led are grappling with the results. Time most probably would allow the American leaders to succeed as their ancestors in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The striking difference between now and then is the heterogeneity of the racial composition in the national population and the diversity of religions. Simon and Schuster published a book, "American Immigrant Cultures, Builders of a Nation" some years ago. It is a rich source of information about ethnic and religious diversity in America. In that two-volume publication one gains a good idea of religious and ethnic diversity.

Another significant point from the Pew survey is the growing prevalence of inter-religious marriages. This development, in my view, lies in the growing appreciation of the American public of co-existence as the effective bridge between electronic power and soul power in the hearts and minds of most Americans. Not only are we willing to trust the Coke machines with our quarters and dimes but we also trust our preachers, rabbis and imams when they do business for God, Yahweh, Allah or an other metaphysical entity.

This is why I have argued in the academy and elsewhere that the three Abrahamic religions would be characterized by an alien anthropologist from another galaxy as people who are captured by the migration motif and by their fascination with stones. Time and space do not allow me to go any further in the elaboration of this thesis. My students and my audiences are familiar with this message, The only thing I can say here is that Americans too have adopted these tendencies and the Pew survey adds to my thesis the idea that the Jewish people who contributed immeasurably to the propagation of the idea of a single God still have doubters in the community of atheists. Their numbers, according to the Pew survey, equates the Jewish presence in America. Real or imagined, I would say here that the U.S. Constitution has turned out to be the great peacemaker between the believers in this world and the believers in a metaphysical world beyond the grave. Hence, the First Amendment is America's Mall and Cathedral (it could be Temple or Kaaba) where humans learned to live and work together in peace before the farewell address to this life.

I look forward to the next Pew survey with interest. Hopefully, it would help us appreciate the changing nature of our religious landscape.

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Sulayman Nyang

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Faith at Home in America