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.”
NPR has a 50 minute edited version of the debate as well as some of the highlights like this one:
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. This damned form of religion is a corruption both of faith and of constitutional democracy. And it makes a mockery of the best in our history….”
and one against the motion:
Jean Bethke Elshtain, a professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago: “One should not, from any direction, separate America’s citizens who accept a secular world from those, the religious, who alleged do not. Citizens of religious commitment are among the most enthusiastic supporters of a secular government. They don’t want established religion, but they also understand that to support a secular government and state does not commit us to a thoroughly secularized society, shorn of religious voices, symbols, activities and commitments. We would be a greatly impoverished country were this to come to pass. So too damned religious? Nope. Just pretty damned American….”