A Secular Religion of Social Consciousness?

Frank Rich, in yesterdays New York Times, wrote a provocative op-ed piece about the waning of the so-called culture wars. ("The Culture Warriors Get Laid Off.") He drew parallels between the 1930s' New Deal politics of FDR and 2009's actions by Barack Obama: "Once again, both president and the country are following New-Deal era precedent." The precedent was a retreat of the churches in personal lives and cultural influence and a sort of secular religion of social consciousness emerged.

Mr. Rich sees a continuing decline in the influence of religion and boldy asserts: "...Obama has far more moral authority than any religious leader in America with the possible exception of his sometime ally, the Rev. Rick Warren."

And, pulling no punches Mr. Rich concludes, " History is cyclical, and it would be foolhardy to assume that the culture wars will never return. But after the humiliations of the Scopes trial and the repeal of Prohibition, it did take a good four decades for the religious right to begin its comeback in the 1970s. In our tough times, when any happy news can be counted as a miracle, a 40-year exodus for these ayatollahs can pass for an answer to America’s prayers."

In my estimation Mr. Rich's remarks point to an ever-more-apparent shift, as well as that shift's consequences, regarding religion and the American experience.

I'm starting to ponder what will be the new "secular" religion, if "secular" religion isn't oxymoronic. Will it be a contemporary form of the 1930s social consciousness?

The Growing "Nones"

This week the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008 was released. Conducted by The Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut, 54,461 respondents indicated a continuing shift in American religious practice away from Christianity specifically and organized religion generally. ( 86% of American adults identified as Christians in 1990 and 76% in 2008.)

The ARIS report declared, "The U.S. population continues to show signs of becoming less religious, with one out of every five Americans failing to indicate a religious identity in 2008. The "Nones" (no stated religious preference, atheist, or agnostic) continue to grow, though at a much slower pace than in the 1990s, from 8.2% in 1990 to 14.1% to 2001, to 15.0% in 2008."

In my estimation the survey's data point to the future of American religion: Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics will set the norm for Christianity, as the so-called main line Protestants continue to decline--probably at the expense of the "Nones." And the "Nones," eschewing organized religion and perhaps religion altogether, will continue to swell.

Communion of Our Humanness

We make too much of our distinctions

That which
separates and divides us,
one from another:
person from person,
race from race,
nation from nation.

Beyond all that
separates and divides,
Beyond the superficial distinctions
of sex, age, color, origin, religion, ability...
whatever!
There is the communion of our humanness.
Our instincts and impulses,
Our desires and drives,
Our hopes and fears
Are essentially the same.

We are kindred beings, soul mates,
brothers and sisters—
Of the same flesh and spirit.

I am my brother's and my sister's keeper,
I will do unto others as I would have done
to myself,
Because I am my brother and my sister
multiplied by the factor of all
my brothers and sisters who have lived,
who will ever live, and who live now.