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How Is America Different?
by James Hitchcock
January 13, 2003
Pundits debate the question of
"American exceptionalism" -- the claim that there is
something unique and remarkable about the United States, as compared
to the other nations of the world. It is a question with religious
implications, since there have always been people who see the
United States as specially favored by God.
Such a claim arouses reactions, and for very good reasons. There
is probably no surer way to slide into infidelity than through
a sense of one's own righteousness. The idea that America might
be specially favored by God also seems absurd when we look at
the realities of American life. Americans are certainly among
the leading fleshpots of the world; our culture is in many ways
corrupt.
But from a purely empirical, or sociological, point of view,
there is something to this claim. Whether or not America is especially
favored by God, whether or not Americans are unusually faithful
to His commands, it is simply true that in America religion is
taken more seriously than it is in any other Western country.
When people start ticking off examples of our corruption, I always
respond, "You are absolutely right, and it is much worse
in Europe."
The moral corruption of American life seems to be an inevitable
product of a successful consumer society. It cannot be stressed
often enough that what is wrong with capitalism is not that it
doesn't work, making promises it cannot fulfill, but that it
works too well and that some of the things which make it work
also tend to make people self-indulgent and hedonistic.
That being the case, the corruption from which we suffer is endemic
to all advanced modern societies, which is why things are worse
in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands and Scandinavia, although
no country can feel complacent. (Ireland and other Catholic countries
are coming up fast!)
America is unique among the nations of the West in the way in
which religious faith is common and even respectable. As far
as I can see, there is no other country in the Western world
where politicians, entertainers, athletes, and others are so
willing to testify to their faith and to the difference it has
made in their lives. Americans far exceed all other Western people
in their professed belief in religious doctrines and in their
rate of church attendance. In some European countries virtually
nobody goes to church.
Is all this hypocritical, shallow, or distorted? To a degree,
yes. But often people whose beliefs seem that way nonetheless
hold them deeply and sincerely. Religion does seem to make a
difference in the lives of many Americans.
Why this should be so is not clear. We need to be sceptical of
any claim that we are uniquely blessed by God. Divine grace always
works in conjunction with human elements, and I think the religiosity
of the United States can be understood historically. (One factor
-- only one -- is that the absence of any state church in America
motivated the various churches to be exceptionally aggressive
in evangelization.) I like to say that in America religion is
like petroleum -- it is everywhere under the ground and gushes
forth again just when the experts have announced that the well
has finally run dry.
At this moment American uniqueness is manifest to the world in
a particularly striking way -- the Bush administration is opposing,
in the United Nations and elsewhere, all attempts by public agencies
to promote abortion. It is of course a controversial position
even in America, and in Western Europe it is regarded as almost
bizarre that the most advanced nation in the world should take
this "reactionary" position. But in this respect at
least America is in a position to exercise not only the political
and economic, but also the moral, leadership of the Western world.
James Hitchcock, professor of history at St. Louis University,
writes and lectures on contemporary Church matters. His column
appears in the diocesan press. His two-volume book on religion
and the Supreme Court has just been published by Princeton
University Press. E-Mail: Dr.
James Hitchcock
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