Rhetoric Race and Religion
Depending on which pundits you follow, America is either a nation that’s drenched in religion and hostile to nonbelievers, or a severely secular place that hates people of faith. On either side you’ll find plenty of examples to support your claim.
You may be convinced that we’re becoming a theocracy, pointing to religion’s steady intrusion into public policies in the fields of science, public health, and foreign aid, just to name a few. Add to that the stigma many atheists claim to face, and it’s clear that America is on the verge of dumping the Constitution and making the Bible its governing document.
Or maybe you’re certain that we’ve abandoned the spiritual values and moral principles that made this nation great. Just look at the high numbers of children born out of wedlock, theattacks on religious liberty, and the attempts to erase God from the public sphere. Check out the hostility toward religion from elites in journalism, universities, and the media, and it’s obvious that people of faith are being victimized for their beliefs.
If you resist choosing a side in this debate, however, you’re not alone. Such simplistic extremes don’t begin to reflect the way actual people live in the real world. Sure, these views make for lively theatrics, but they ignore the dynamic complexities of behavior and belief.
In the real world people don’t fit into such tidy boxes. Morality can be in the eye of the beholder. Good and evil are rarely simple. And faith and doubt are most often intertwined.
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