Religion is important for American politics because religion is important for Americans.1 Yet, there are factors in American political life that amplify the role of religion in a way that is not seen in other developed countries.
For a developed country, the U.S. is extraordinarily high on religion. Thus 65 percent of Americans say that religion is important in their daily lives compared to just 17 percent of Swedes, 19 percent of Danes, and 24 percent of Japanese.2
Why America is more religious than Europe
There are several likely reasons why Americans say that they are so much more religious than Europeans. One may be that they exaggerate their own religiosity in the same way that they claim about twice the attendance rates relative to people actually showing up in church.1
There is also a large immigrant population, many of whom hail from countries that are poor and comparatively religious. Immigrant groups that happen to be linguistically isolated may remain quite religious even if the broader society becomes increasingly secular.1
Life is more difficult in the U.S. than in Europe by several measures even though Europe is currently in an economic decline.3 Problems here range from health problems and lower life expectancy, to higher crime rates, and relative lack of involvement in the community.4 All of these problems are bound up with inequality - with a chasm between the living conditions of rich and poor.4 This gap has widened in recent decades and reveals holes in social safety nets relative to Europe.5
So Americans feel far less secure economically, and in relation to their health and well-being than the overall wealth of the country in terms of GDP per capita would predict.4 This existential insecurity provides a fertile ground for religion.1
Historians are fond of attributing American religiosity to historical factors such as the Puritan founders. Yet history counts for little in these matters given that virtually every country has a devout past -- specifically the currently secular countries of Europe.
Why religion is emphasized in American politics
Religion influences American politics to a degree not seen in other developed countries. Despite the constitutional firewall between church and state, national politicians hardly ever give a major speech without invoking religion.
The president is forever asking God to bless America, sending his prayers to victims of disasters, hosting religious leaders, and extolling religious values. Such advocacy of religion is unheard of in Europe but that may be because the majority is no longer religious and because voting members of the native population (as distinct from immigrants) are not very devout.
In America, religion is much more a part of public life whatever the constitution says. There are various reasons for this. One is that evangelical Christians under the banner of the Moral Majority made a determined push to influence political leaders since the 1970s and to inject religion into political debates. This broad agenda animates contemporary right-wing media including talk radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh and TV channels such as Fox News.
The religious propensities of immigrants mean that they are receptive to the conservative religious message and can be induced to vote across class lines. In doing so they support an agenda that favors the wealthy and makes them even poorer.
Given this threat from the religious right, Democrats feel pressure to emphasize their own religious credentials, or risk losing a chunk of the poorer immigrant population who make up their natural constituency.
So religion is embroiled in American political life and that magnifies the apparent significance of religion in people's everyday lives. According to wits, U.S. conservatives went to war in Afghanistan to separate religion from politics abroad while striving to unite religion and politics at home.
American politicians talk a lot about religion. Yet, they have no more in common with theocrats like the Taliban than ordinary Americans have with the religious fervor of ordinary Afghanis.
Many poor people in America undermine their economic interests by voting for Republican politicians who are interested in further concentrating wealth in the hands of the affluent. They do so, in part, because the Republicans appeal to their religious propensity.
That religious propensity is strengthened by increasing insecurity in the lives of the poor because difficult living conditions are associated with increased religiosity.1 So the worse their living conditions become, the more likely they are to follow a self-defeating voting pattern. That seems like another great reason for really separating church and state.
Sources
1. Barber, N. (2012). Why atheism will replace religion: The triumph of earthly pleasures over pie in the sky. E-book, available here.
2. Gallup (2010). Religiosity highest in world's poorest nations.
3. Zuckerman, P. (2008). Society without God: What the least religious nations can tell us about contentment. New York: New York University Press.
4. Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2010). The spirit level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger. New York: Bloomsbury Press.
5. Huffington, A. (2010). Third World America. New York: Crown.
I was always taught that religion was compassion, yet I see too many churches preaching hate. I would have never imagined a church would be against feeding hungry children, through free school lunch programs or any other method. I am afraid that because our president is not "racially pure" it has drawn out the true bigotry of some of the evangelicals.
One can only hope, that the IRS will increase the investigators that can and will root out those that are violating the 501c3 exemption.
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Which would mean what?
By the way--your logical construction has a huge hole in it: the different experiences with secular rule in the US and Europe that caused them to be anti clerical and us not.
A rising factor in American religiosity is the growing realization that the West is engaged in a religious war with political Islam--Islamism. The circling of the wagons has begun--with non members of both religions on the outside.
That's likely to increase public religiosity.
For the most part, though, religion (specifically conservative interpretations of Christianity) seems to be utilized by political / religious conservatives (again, Christians) to be utilized primarily as a means to try to motivate conservative Americans to feel that denying rights to other American citizens is a justifiable idea (for instance, the right of people to marry a partner of their choice regardless of gender; the right of women to make their own medical decisions, etc.)
The real threat to the rights of Americans seems to be coming from politically-active conservative Christians, and not from Muslims, who don't seem to actually be doing the things that people with concerns about them, such as yourself, seem to be afraid that they are doing, or will be doing.
I'll have my popcorn ready!
Do you think it is wrong for voters to want to be represented by someone who shares their basic worldview?
Theocrats on the American "Religious Right" ignore that, or even deny it. In fact, Pat Robertson, the elder spokesman for the "Religious Right" has falsely claimed that the idea of separation of church and state is "a lie of the left."
I long for the day when all Americans realize that the Founding Fathers knew, and intended to establish, that there can be no freedom of religion unless government is neutral regarding religions, and favors no religion over others.
See The Coalition of Jews, Christians and Muslims for Peace, Freedom and Justice, at http://cjcmp.org.
Thomas Jefferson's seemingly glaringly contradictory statements in two well-known passages from Notes on the State of Virginia shed light on Barber's confusion. Jefferson writes in Query 17: “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Jefferson defends an expansive individual liberty and appears to reject the need for religion as a support for morality. Yet at Query 18, Jefferson argues that the liberty he champions has its surest support in religious belief: “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?”
It would seem to matter a great deal for the security of Jefferson’s liberty whether his neighbor believed in God or gods...
A prime example:
“And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?”
It's fairly retrograde to still believe that morality is somehow superior to ethics.
Most educated people now recognize that virtue does not proceed from a fear of getting caught by the supernatural policeman, but from an inner conviction about what is right and what is wrong--a sense of ethics.
Modern natural science -- Barber's positivism -- is wholly indifferent to this question because modern natural science is indifferent to question of the good. Modern natural science cannot guide political life. See my two part comment to Thomas Paine on this thread here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/rklight33/why-religion-rules-americ_b_1690433_170515085.html
and here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/rklight33/why-religion-rules-americ_b_1690433_170515319.html
I'm not clear on how you are distinguishing morality and ethics -- unless you're thinking that ethics is premised on pragmatism, i.e., a sense of morality precisely absent any concrete standard.