Touchdown Jesus by Robert Laurence Moore

Robert Laurence Moore has written a delightful, enlightening, and provocative survey of American church history centered around the theme of "mixing" the "sacred" with the "secular" and vice versa. The major points of conversation covered include the polarization caused by the public display of religious symbols, the important contribution that women and Africans have made to the American religious mosaic, the harmony and friction that has existed between science and religion, the impact of immigration on religious pluralism, and the twin push toward the union and separation of religion and politics.

Moore investigates the attitudes, behavior, and perception of Americans regarding their respective individual sacred and secular lives. He is interested in the roles of popular culture and religion and in addition, how popular culture affected the shift in boundaries between sacredness and secularism, particularly how these practices shape American religion. We live in a complex society and social structure that is structured with norms and values that they themselves structure the way we interpret and interact with others.

Moore does not devote much of his attention to religious ideas. Instead, he examines several different instances of the blending of the sacred and the profane in popular American culture. Moore narrates the direct and indirect effects of the public display of religion for both sacreds and seculars. History, lifestyle, work, education, government, music, sporting events, marketplace, literature, and womanhood influence people. He also brings up how religion can influence racial militancy and terrorism that threaten equality, domestic security, and national identity.

Religion and prayers adapt different and sp...

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...he holiday season. No imaginable Supreme Court is going to create obstacles to this consumer juggernaut. Nor is any Jewish group or Islamic group likely to finance a test case to bring down Christmas. They too are merchants" (p. 28-29).

I like that Moore is not hesitant to express thoughtful criticisms about the pretensions of the church and the undemocratic ways that Protestants have sometimes attempted to dominate American society. His commentary stimulates constructive discussions about what should and should not be the proper role of Christianity, especially Protestantism, in a religiously pluralistic culture that has constitutional guarantees for religious freedom and the separation of church and state.

Works Cited

Moore, R. Laurence. Touchdown Jesus: The Mixing of Sacred and Secular in American History. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003. Print.