It chronicles the spread of toleration—punctuated by outrages
By Steven Waldman.lies at the heart of America’s approach to religion. It is far more devout than other wealthy Western countries. While 6% of British adults report praying every day, over half of Americans say they do. Yet, observant but diverse in their beliefs, Americans are remarkably accepting of other faiths.Steven Waldman, the author of a fine history of the religious views of the Founding Fathers, has now written a powerful account of American religion since the colonial period.
The second world war shifted attitudes decisively. The draft mixed men of all faiths as comrades-in-arms. The entertainment industry chimed in. “Religion doesn’t make any real difference,” Frank Sinatra says in a short film of 1945, “except to a Nazi or a dope.” To be anti-Semitic was to be Hitler’s ally; the concept of a Judaeo-Christian heritage took hold. For his part, Franklin Roosevelt advocated the “freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world”.
Meanwhile, zealous as America may seem to outsiders, religion, particularly the organised kind, is becoming far less important. When pollsters queried religious preferences in the 1950s, some 95% of Americans gave a specific denomination or tradition. In recent surveys, the share who say they have no particular religion is roughly the same as those who identify as Protestant. The “nones” now comprise 40% or more of 18- to 44-year-olds.
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