NPR.org, February 15, 2007 · As if it weren’t provocative enough to hold a debate on religion in America, panelists in a recent debate were tasked with answering the following: "Is America Too Damn Religious?"
The event was part of a series of Oxford-style debates called Intelligence Squared U.S. Produced in New York City by WNYC, it is based on the Intelligence Squared program that began in London in 2002. Three experts argue in favor of the motion; three others argue against it.
In a vote before the debate, about 67 percent of the audience agreed with the motion. After hearing the debate, more than 70 percent agreed with the motion, roughly 24 percent were opposed and about 5 percent were undecided, concluding that America is in fact "too damn religious."
Pretty ironic for secularists to use Damn in relation to too many religious American. It is also strange that many religious people see Americans as becoming more secular while secularists see Americans as too religious. It would seem that both ideas can’t be true, but they can. America is becoming more secular, and secularist see even a shrinking number as being "too damn religious."
8 comments
What an insulting question to debate! Can you imagine any other aspect of American life debated as “too damn”? Too damn fat? Too damn white? Too damn vegetarian? Too damn stupid? That anyone would sit for such a question is upsetting.
I see that it is an NPR series recorded in New York City. I work in New York City, live in a suburb, and listen to some NPR programs, but I’ve never heard of the program before now. I’m sure that the audience was not typical of most Americans, nor even of most New Yorkers.
The web site says, “The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says: ‘What is a damned religion? Damned religion is a religion so weak-willed and unsure of its own capacity to persuade others to support it or live by its guidance that it seeks the blessing of government. That it seeks financial aid from government. And that it even tries to convert its theological beliefs into legislative fiats….'”
Disregarding the difference between being “too damned religious” and being “a damned religion” he ignored the stated topic to ride his secularist hobby horse.
Incidentally, Americans United for Separation of Church and State was originally Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State and was explicitly anti-Catholic. Anyone interested in the details can look for the 1959 book United for Separation : an Analysis of POAU Assaults on Catholicism by Lawrence P. Creedon and William D. Falcon.
Neuhaus� Law (or at least one of his several laws): Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed.
I agree.
America is the most religious country in the world.
The adore with such force.
The god Ego.
They work tirelessly for his pleasures for his desires.
Thay hate the demon they call Cross or Suffering.
But Ego has a brother. They call him Satan.
And he is getting awefully jelous.
It’s really funny that as much as we — and I include myself in this — complain about how un-religious American culture is, things are a lot worse off in Europe. Interestingly, I think we have our Protestant friends to thank (for the most part) for keeping America as Christian as it is.
American secularists organize themselves into the church of human secularism and the on quite proselytization campaign.
Wouldn’t the grammatically correct way to ask this be “Is America too damned religious?”
No doubt I will be flamed for citing That Woman. But it reminds me of the scene in ATLAS SHRUGGED where Dagny, on learning that she has been booked to “debate” “Is Rearden Metal a lethal product of greed?”, leaves the cab, snarling “You fool, do you think I consider their question debatable?”
Comments are closed.