Elephant In Exile

I must say I haven't found much to agree with Andrew Sullivan of late, but always enjoy his perspective on conservative issues and his outsider status on American culture. I did find much to agree with though in his posting today titled "The Party of God
Republicanism Reinvented."

Does anyone but me remeber that the separation of Church and State was put into the Constitution to protect religion from government, not government from religion? Sigh.


The Party of God
Republicanism Reinvented

America is an exceptional country and one of the ways in which it has always been exceptional is in the role of religion. Every astute observer has noticed this and it's still true - far higher rates of church attendance than in other developed countries, constant religious references in public life, an enormous network of religious charities that do amazing work, and a perpetual churning of spiritual frenzy. If you are a person of faith, as I am, it's highly impressive. But it's also, of course, fraught with danger and occasional excess. American religion justified the enslavement of African-Americans and their emancipation; it fueled the Great Awakening of the nineteenth century, the anti-evolution Scopes trial in the early part of this century, and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. It has propelled activists of right and left, of reaction and revolution.

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http://andrewsullivan.com/main_article.php?artnum=20040619