Supported by the findings of a recent Pew study called “Faith in Flux,” Courtney E. Martin argues that Americans—including herself—have incredibly complex feelings about God and country:
Americans are testing the waters of a new kind of religious complexity. This isn’t the New Age spirituality of The Secret or the rabid atheism of Ivy League intellectuals. It isn’t the over-the-top bar mitzvah or quinceañera. This is the steady, patient movement of citizens who are searching for the center again, Americans who want to believe in the goodness of a country and its people, folks who are affiliated with fairness and kindness over any one institution of worship.
[…]Strangely, Barack Obama’s election was the closest thing to a religious experience that I’ve ever had. My faith was renewed in a country that, at times, has felt beyond saving. My heart swelled with the sense of interconnection that I’ve only heard described in spiritual terms. I certainly don’t think he’s a god, but I do think that the hope and sense of responsibility and community that he’s been able to inspire in people is profound.
Ultimately, it is our collective humility—brought on by economic collapse and years of reckless domestic and foreign policy—and the wisdom born from it that will be our salvation. As President Obama himself would attest, it’s time to stop looking to leaders to save us from ourselves and start building a sustainable, equitable future that’s made of something stronger than religious fervor or blind patriotism. Americans are ready to rebuild our country, not from commandments on high but from earthly values like kindness and reason.
Read the full article in The American Prospect.