HAS CHRISTIANITY MADE AMERICAN SOCIETY DYSFUNCTIONAL?
A SKEPTICAL INVESTIGATION IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
INTRODUCTION:
Our last discussion was entitled "Did Protestantism Make America Great?" and we discussed several theories about how the Protestant Reformation may have led to the Scientific Revolution, industrial capitalism, and liberal democracy, and secularization. To review the discussion outline from that meetup, look here: https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/djzwsrybclbfc/
In this meetup, we'll address some ways in which certain denominations & trends within Christianity may have had some dysfunctional effects on American culture.
After World War 2, a trend towards secularization in Western Europe, Canada & Australia gradually left the U.S. noticeably higher in religiosity by the late 20th century. Some sociologists (e.g. Rodney Stark) believe this is an unintentional effect of America's religious freedom which caused churches to compete with each other for members by developing more attractive services which tend to keep people more interested in religion than the "boring" state churches of Western Europe.
Of course, the higher level of religiosity in the United States compared to Europe clearly has not made the U.S. deeply dysfunctional in the way it has Islamist theocracies like Saudi Arabia & Iran - i.e. the U.S. has remained a liberal democracy despite having high levels of religiosity among the populace. The U.S. also didn't get stuck at a low level of economic development like many of the heavily Catholic countries of Latin America.
However, religious ideology may play a bigger role in social & political conflicts than many Americans realize, in the sense that there may be ways that the various major Christian denominations affect the "deep culture" of regions of the U.S. in ways that are less obvious but more fundamental than surface-level debates over political issues like abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage & stem cell research.
In the 1st section of this discussion, we'll look at various explanations for why the Old South became the "Bible Belt" and consider whether specific sects of Protestant Christianity - most notably the Southern Methodist Church and Southern Baptist Convention - may have played an important role for white Southerners seeking to justify slavery and Jim Crow segregation. We'll also consider if these sects are still perpetuating racism in America, and to what extent white Southerners injected a toxic mix of religiosity & racism into the Republican Party when they began to switch parties in the 1970s & '80s.
In the 2nd section, we'll look at how Protestant churches in New England after the Second Great Awakening became heavily involved in social reform movements of the 19th century such as abolitionism & women's suffrage, but how this also could lead to excessive self-righteousness & paternalism in the ways they addressed "vices" like sexual promiscuity & alcohol consumption. We'll consider how a significant fraction of the pietist strain of Protestantism may have gradually given way to secular progressivism, and how it may explain some of the radical excesses of the political left in America in the 20th & 21st century.
In the 3rd section, we'll look at some of the suspicions harbored by the Protestant majority against Catholic immigrants in the 19th century and consider whether there may have been some truth to the claim that Catholic loyalty to the Pope might pose a problem for citizens in a liberal democracy. We'll look at how Pope Pius IX condemned rationalism & liberalism in the "Syllabus of Errors" in 1864, and how Pope Leo XIII lamented America's separation of church & state and addressed a heresy he called "Americanism" in a latter in 1899. Although the Catholic Church became friendlier to liberal democracy & pluralism after the Second Vatican Council in 1965, and this trend seems to have received another boost with the election of Pope Francis in 2013, we'll consider the implications of the group of "traditionalist" Catholics in America who have rejected aspects of the Vatican II & Pope Francis's teachings.
In the 4th section, we'll consider the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints, a.k.a. the Mormons. We'll look at the debate over whether their practice of polygamy posed problem for democracy, and to what extent this problem ended when the LDS Church publicly renounced the practice of polygamy in 1890. We'll also consider whether or not the LDS Church has established what might be considered a "theocracy" in Utah and whether it should be classified as a "cult" or merely another form of Protestant Christianity.
RELEVANT MATERIALS FROM PAST MEETUPS:
In the 1st section of this discussion, we'll talk about how Christianity was used to justify slavery in the American South. Back in October of 2019, we had a meetup entitled "Slavery & Pseudohistory," and in the 1st section we discussed the way conflicting passages from the Bible were used by both slaveowners & abolitionists to justify their positions. It's worth noting that English slaveholders dealt with this ambiguity by constructing an edited "Slave Bible" in the early 19th century that redacted the Book of Exodus due to the negative depiction of enslaved Hebrews in Egypt and left out parts of Galatians & Jeremiah that spoke against slavery. Similarly, Southern slaveholders in the US mostly kept their slaves illiterate and, especially after the Nat Turner rebellion, required white ministers to be present at all black worship services to ensure sermons didn't provide a Biblical justification for rebellion. https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/rgrhxqyznbbc/
In the 2nd section of this discussion, we'll discuss why the Catholic Church used to oppose liberal democracy and why some traditionalist Catholics still do. Many skeptics & atheists may not be familiar with the implications of the Catholic teachings we'll discuss, like Pope Leo XII's letter on the "Americanism" heresy or the changes wrought by the Vatican II Council, but many will probably point to the repeated child molestation the Catholic Church has experienced since the 1990s as a major social problem. We had a meetup back in May of 2018 entitled "Sex Abuse Scandals, Pedo Panics & Conspiracy Theories" where we discussed the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandals & how they compare with other religious organizations. According to the historian Philip Jenkins who's research this issue, the evidence suggests that Catholic priests are no more likely to molest children than non-celibate clergy of other religions or adults who routinely spend time with children such as daycare workers, athletic coaches, and scout leaders. https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/251067305/
In the 3rd section of this discussion, we'll discuss the history of secular progressivism in America and see if it can be traced back to Puritanism in New England. Back in May of 2018, we had a meetup entitled "The Campus Rape Crisis & Sex Trafficking" and in the Introduction section we reviewed several "sex panics" that may relate to this transition, namely the anti-Catholicism in the 1830s that precipitated the Ursuline convent riot and the "white slavery" panic of the late 19th to early 20 century that led to the passage of the Comstock Laws in 1873 (banning contraception & pornography) and the Mann Act in 1910 (banning interstate transportation of women for "immoral purposes") and the immigration acts of 1921 & 1924 that prevented immigration from Eastern Europe and Asia, ostensibly to curtail sex-trafficking but also due to "eugenic" concerns. https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/248995893/
Two weeks ago, the Philly Political Agnostics had a meetup entitled "How Do Regional Cultures Affect Politics?" and they explored how the religious views of the "Yankees" of New England and the "Rednecks"of Appalachia and "Cavaliers" in the Deep South all relate historically to broader trends in the "deep culture" of those regions. They also looked at how these cultural trends played a role in regional conflicts like the Civil War, desegregation & the dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the 1950s-60s, and even the regional aspect of political polarization today. We should probably consider the possibility that religious ideology was merely invoked by both sides but wasn't causal, and that demographic & economic conditions may be the driving force behind these conflicts. https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/mjlzgrybcfbtb/
