January 13, 2003 

AMERICA–A MODERN MIRACLE?

In an editorial page column in last Sunday's Star–News, Cal State Long Beach professor Daniel Guerriere begins with these words: "America is the most religious society on earth." Presumably, he bases this conclusion on the many statistics established by polling, showing that in church membership, church attendance, belief in God, belief in the after-life, etc. Americans are consistently at or near the top.

He also goes on to say that America is the only place in the world which "has found a way to be modern and religious at once." To his thinking, this combination is so rare that it can be considered a "modern miracle."

Guerriere gives examples of two extremes that demonstrate the usual incompatibility of these two qualities. Europe has become modern by moving toward a totally secular society and away from its Christian roots. On the other hand, countries dominated by Islam have become increasingly religious, at the expense of modernity. America has somehow found a middle-ground between these two tendencies. It has "transcended its religious differences without losing its faith." Guerriere believes that this is so powerful a combination that it is "invincible."

This brief analysis raises many questions in my mind. What does "modern" mean? G.K. Chesterton pointed out a hundred years ago that an isolated Guinea tribesman, who may seem to us to be primitive, or even prehistoric, is really a twentieth-century person as much as the most learned graduate of Cambridge or Oxford. It is only our bias that makes the one seem more "modern" than the other. And the fact that a thing is the latest fad does not mean it is "modern"—I have old ties that are coming back into fashion.

The word "religious" creates as much confusion. The fact that Guerriere uses "the politico-religious fanaticism of militant Islam" as his prime example puts me off immediately. That doesn't seem at all religious to me. And as for Americans' involvement in churches, this is often accompanied by some of the most prominent attitudes of the Pharisees, who did not receive rave revues from Jesus. According to the New Testament, True religion is a matter of the heart and cannot be directly observed by others.

But if we grant Guerriere his premise, that America combines the religious with the modern in a miraculous way that makes it "invincible," we ought to be on our knees. What an awesome responsibility American Christianity bears! This is nothing to exult in, for "to whom much has been given, from him much will be required" (Luke 12:48).

–Pastor George Van Alstine