"Abrahamic America"

[saavedra77]

"What intrigues me about this new notion of a Judeo-Christian-Islamic (aka Abrahamic) America is how it manages to be both inclusive and exclusive at the same time. Obviously, it admits Muslims in what had once been a Protestant-Catholic-Jewish club. But by stressing such Western religious staples as monotheism, it obviously excludes religions that affirm no God (Buddhism) and those that affirm many (Hinduism).

"I see both the Judeo-Christian model and the newer Judeo-Christian-Islamic one as rear-guard efforts to keep the Christian America model alive—efforts that will likely fail. We live in a country where Buddhists and Hindus are now asking for a place at the table of American faiths—where the sort of 'faith-based' social services lauded by the Bush administration are delivered not only by Christians, Jews, and Muslims but also by Hare Krishnas and Zen Buddhists.

"Or, as Supreme Court Justice William Douglas put it in 1965, we are 'a nation of Buddhists, Confucianists, and Taoists, as well as Christians.'"

-Stephen Prothero, Chair, Boston University Department of Religion

Comments

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

That seems terribly optimistic. At least for the next few hundred years, I don't know what time frame he's talking about. The Christian power structure seems increasingly unwilling to loosen its stranglehold these days.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Well, my reading of Prothero is that he's talking about what won't work. I don't think that he's talking about the U.S.--particularly Red-State America--making peace with being a multifaith or secular society any time soon. But the idea of an "Abrahamic America" is going to be challenged pretty much from the get-go--both from the right by those who aren't really that comfortable with including Muslims, and from the left by members of other faiths and secular people. I don't think that either kind of challenge is likely to stop, any time soon.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

I'm not reading very well lately, sigh.

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

The "Judeo-Christian" tradition is a myth. It is code for "The Christian tradition that admits Judaism when it suits us." I don't expect adding Islam will change that much.

He said, cynically.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Listening to my sister-in-law spew invective against Muslims in defense of Bush, I suspect all we need is some alien group to unite the Abrahamics. Atheists, perhaps. Maybe polytheists.

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

Regardless of whether the 3 major monotheistic faiths were to unite, I think Jews and Muslims would always be seen as the "junior partners," there on the sufference of the the Christians.

And yeah, I'm really cynical about this.... ;-)

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't think that you're not being any more cynical than the people who speak piously about the "Judeo-Christian" or "Abrahamic" traditions.

'Course, I'm a heathen, so what do I know ...

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Somehow, it seems as though having time to think about one's reply and cut and paste and so on would make one more articulate, but sometimes it just leads me to make a hash of things. Of course, I meant to write: "I don't think that you're being any more cynical than" etc. But that got lost somewhere in there ...

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

It's all right. I understood what you meant. :-)