Exceptionalism Essay

1. Religious vitality refers to the importance and popularity of religion within society. The vitality of religion can be difficult to understand due to a long term misunderstanding that religion does not influence American politics at all. However, religion has been encrypted into politics since the start of the United States. American exceptionalism is the belief of the United States is exceptional, a special place compared to other nations, blessed by God. With American exceptionalism comes the creation of American values and what it means to be American. One value, which arose during the expansion to the west, was the Manifest Destiny, a God given duty for America to imperialize the west. American exceptionalism can be support religious

The Constitution of the United States is sometimes called the national covenant. The Constitution was presented to the people as a “contract” they were free to accept or reject. Just as accepting a covenant from God would involve giving and receiving, the Constitution promised to provide “benefits such as justice, order, welfare, and liberty” (Wald 45-46) if accepted by the people. Apart from benefiting from what the Constitution promised, it would also limit the power of the government in terms of what it can and cannot do. To this day, Americans continue to live under the Constitution, an idea that was derived from the covenant of the Puritans. “The Constitution supplies the U.S. citizens with a national identity, sacred civic values, and comforting rituals” (Levinson 1988; Rountree 1990,

Puritans paved way to democracy by demanding religious choice from the Church of England. By getting freedom, the Puritans planned to for justice and good. Another reason Puritans living in the colonies wanted to break free from the Church of England was due to the fear of losing their religious liberty. The same fear would also play a major role of development of American nationalism. Unlike the Church of England, Puritans wanted to build a church one would join voluntarily and be active in the running of the congregation. “The American governmental system was designed by political architects who assumed that human beings could not be trusted with power” (Wald 49). The Founders focused more on defects of humanity more than its virtues, much like the Puritans. In Reformation theology, Puritans viewed the story of Adam as a lesson that when given the choice between good and evil, mankind will often choose evil. Puritans also believed redemption did not exist and God had already chosen those who would experience his grace and those who would only experience sin and torment. Derived from this belief, a political conclusion was made that government would never be perfect as it’s a product of human beings. Since God had already chosen those who would be saved and actions in life would not redeem someone, “it was not the task of government to make people good” (Wald 49). All a government can aspire to