The Current Religion of the American Economy as a Barrierand Substitute for Christian Living

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The Current Religion of the American Economy as a Barrierand Substitute for Christian Living

Thenature of this paper, which deals with the presence of a subconscious set ofparticularly American beliefs, inherently involves more reflection than thegathering of data. Whatsimportant is the way we live, not the historical manufacturing of facts whichis more evidence, not description, of the current Religion of the AmericanEconomy. And while most ofthese truths should be self evident (like any good preamble), some statisticswill be cited to illustrate their culmination in everyday life. To set this new dogma in context, Iwill also describe the founding principles of Christian living, with particularattention paid to the economic reality of what such living entails.

Current Church of State

Whatthe U.S. has done, indeed what most of us have endorsed, to traditionalreligion is well ! described by Jeffrey Haynes in his essay on religion andpolitics: Almosteverywhere, modern states have sough to reduce religions politicalinfluence, to privatize it and hence significantly reduce its political andsocial importance. But . . .states have also recognized the importance of religion for politics by seekingto create civil religionsthat is, bodies of state designatedreligious dogma. The purpose wasto engineer consensual, corporate religious forms that could claim to be guidedby general, culturally appropriate, societally specific beliefs, notnecessarily tied institutionally to any specific religious tradition. The development of civil religion wasoften part of a strategy not merely to avoid social conflicts but also to tryto promote national co-or! dination in countries with serious religious and/orideological...

... middle of paper ...

... ofmomentum. To the credit ofChristianity, however, it has stood a much greater test of time and its founderwas willing to die for it. Theprivileged class of RAE founders, on the other hand, are mostly unaware oftheir religion (scattered throughout the airwaves and public policy) and notlikely to defend its doctrine at gunpoint.

Works Cited

The New American Bible. Fireside Bible Publishers. ! ; Wichita, KS. 1995-1996 edition.

Arnold,J. Heinrich. Discipleship. PloughPublishing House. Farmington,PA. 1994.

Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Steven Tipton, eds. Meaning and Modernity: Religion, Polity and Self. University of California Press. Berkeley, CA. 2002.

Linda Woodhead, ed. Religions in theModern World. Routledge. New York, NY. 2002

CIA The World Fact Book 2002 (online) http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

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