America has always lived in a dichotomy. It has been a nation that preaches freedom of religion, yet the nation still holds firm to its Christian roots. America has been a tightrope walker carefully trudging along the razor thin line, sometimes leaning left where the first amendment reads ?Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof? and at other times leaning right towards the proud motto many statesmen and laymen swear by, ?one nation under God.? Thankfully, the tightrope walker hasn?t fallen towards either side, and keeps trudging on. Sure constitutionalists can argue that God has no place in the American Government, and they may be right, but the fact remains that God has been a major part of the American government. Why? Because the people have mandated it so.

Historically there has never been a president of the United States who did not believe in God, and in fact the Christian God (even many of the founding fathers, who are described as Deists, were raised as Episcopalians.) Today more than three quarters of the US population identify themselves as Christian, more than any other western nation. Although that shouldn?t surprise any of you, a more important fact was discovered by the Gallup poll in 2006. The poll revealed that forty-six percent of Americans believe that the Bible should be a source of legislation while nine percent believe that it should be the sole source of legislation. This means that nearly half of America would want God in their government, would want legislation that came from the bible. A large portion of the American public would want a pseudo-theocratic regime!

But religion should not be feared, the brotherhood that arrives from Christianity is extremely lively today in American Culture. The charitable nature of America needless to say lies in the statement that ?my brother is my keeper.? The bond that we share with our neighbors is not just coincidence; it has sprouted from Judeo-Christian values. We easily overlook the goodness of religion that we practice every day. Aphorisms that have sprung up and are preached about every day. The words ?turn the other cheek?and?good Samaritan? are rooted in those values, and we should recognize it to be it so.

However doubters of goodness of religion should not be worried. The Constitution of the United States will not be thrown out; we will still have freedom of religion. We will not start persecuting homosexuals, stoning adulterers nor will we stop the act of proselytizing another religion or no religion at all. However these facts may present us to keep ourselves in check. Who knows may be keeping the Electoral College is a good idea? Maybe we need to protect the American people from themselves, to preserve this great nation.

The only conclusion that one can derive, and be certain of, is that religion is a major influence in the United States, and that we should use this influence carefully. It can be used both to help and harm this wonderful nation-state. In moderation religion can be one of the most beneficial stimuli in an environment. However if we let it roam free then extremism and fundamentalism will rise up instead of the amiable and loving quality that religion holds at its core. Religion is a strong influence in this nation and will remain so for quite some time. Thus we should not oppose religion head on, it will create more fundamentalism, and would incite more conflict. America is a gorgeous valley, and religion is the river flowing through it. We should not build a dam to preserve the beauty of the valley, because the dam will agonize the water, and will eventually burst. Instead we need to redirect the river to not run right through the valley but around it, increasing its magnificence.

To better illustrate this, noted academic Wendell Berry in his article “Faustian Economics” tells of two literary characters who play out the eventual fate of mankind if it continues on its current path. He first points out Doctor Faust from The Tragic History of Doctor Faust and explains Faust’s mortally impossible goal to consume all the knowledge in the world. Desperate to accomplish his ambition, Faust makes an ill fated pact with the devil and is eventually damned because of it. Secondly, Berry introduces Satan from Paradise Lost who rebels against God as he cannot accept the prospect of relegating himself to a higher authority. Within the explanation of these two beings, Berry enlightens the reader showing that both Doctor Faust and Satan ignore their all too real limitations and instead futilely aspire for unfeasible aspirations. In the same respect contemporary man is just the same.

We are like Faust in that we ignore our all too human flaws and embrace the view that our own ability will lead us to a better tomorrow with more resources to plunder and more technology to capitalize so that we may keep afloat our highly consumerist, materialistic culture. Usually though we say such beliefs in a different way, substituting “our ability” with the words “free market” and “science” as our vehicles of progress. Many intelligent people have exclaimed “the free market will eventually find valid alternative fuel sources” or “science will eventually solve the global climate crisis” and show the almost religious faith they have in humanity’s own seemingly infinite ability. Yet oil prices just keep rising as the rate of production and discovery of new oil fields remains the same and consumption keeps doubling, tripling, quadrupling or whatever it is now. Of course on the up side we can always exchange our needless farmland that feeds much of the third world with fields of “green” fuel; a situation where food really is for oil, and where society, well American society anyway, really is progressing.

Like Satan we cannot accept the fact we are not gods and yet act like we are deities. We speak of this almost divine right we have when we go about consuming endlessly, saying in defense that such frivolous spending is “good for the economy”; and view our struggle against our own realistic limitations as heroic and romantic, just as how Satan saw his rebellion was against God, which was in actuality grounded in Satan’s own narcissism. We ought to know our place in the world and accept our all too human qualities, understanding that this cycle of voraciously feeding on the earth will destroy the once pristine Appalachian Mountains as we torn the coal asunder from them and as we let our halcyon Californian forests burn from global warming’s unfortunate progression.

Have we reached our zenith or are we already past it? Maybe the real key to our success on this temporal earth is to realize the limits of our existence like an artist knows the boundaries of the wall he paints on or like how a playwright understands the limited extent his audience will sit and pay attention to the stage. Such people have to enrich themselves in their confines and create wonderful masterpieces that are enjoyed by every new generation; there is no doubt everyone here can name a literary work they read over and over and receive a different perspective each time. Like them, we should acknowledge our limitations and know we may not go beyond them; and within such confines we can augment ourselves to an infinite level. As a great teacher once said, “an inch wide and a mile deep”.

Sources:
Much of this article’s ideas came from Wendell Berry’s article “Faustian Economics” in this month’s Harper’s Magazine. A great article; I advise everyone to check it out!

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