This is interesting. I am glad to know that we have once again discovered in our own debate and study our uniqueness as a generation. Heh.
Posted by tripp at August 30, 2007 07:29 AMAs for what the Church thinks and says, what influence
does that have on the handling of American politics, the
conduct of American education, the regulation of marriage and
divorce, on sex and drink, on how industrial disputes are
settled, on how we carry on business? As a plain matter of
fact, religion in this country is generally regarded as a
tolerated pastime for such people as happen to like to indulge
in occasional godly exercises--as a strictly private matter in
an increasingly close-knit and socially acting society--in
other words, as something that does not count. I should like
to see the Church recognize that it has been pushed into the
realm of the non-essentials, and to persuade it to fight like
fury for the right and the duty to bring every act of America
and Americans before the bar of God's judgment. [Christian
leaders] are making valiant claim to such a right and duty;
but the great mass of Church members are content to regard the
Church as a conglomerate of private culture clubs, nice for
christenings, weddings and funerals. Most Church members
readily agree with the unchurched majority that it is not the
proper business of the Church to criticize America or
Americans.
... Bernard Iddings Bell (1886-1958), God is Not Dead
[1945]