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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The Approach - 1. American Ideals and the American Conscience - 5. The Roots in Christianity
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II
Chapter i. American Ideals
fixed upon the process of progressive secularization to the extent that they
do not see this main fact, that America probably is still the most religious
country in the Western world. Political leaders are continuously deducing
the American Creed out of the Bible. Vice-President Henry Wallace, in
his historic speech of May 8, 1942, to the Free World Association, where
he declared the present war to be ^^a fight between a slave world and a
free world^^ and declared himself for ^^a people’s peace” to inaugurate ^^the
century of the common man,” spoke thus:
The idea of freedom—the freedom that we in the United States know and love
so well—Is derived from the Bible with its extraordinary emphasis on the dignity
of the individual. Democracy is the only true political expression of Christianity.
The prophets of the Old Testament were the first to preach social justice. But
that which was sensed by the prophets many centuries before Christ was not given
complete and powerful political expression until our Nation was formed as a Federal
Union a century and a half ago.^**
Ministers have often been reactionaries in America. They have often
tried to stifle free speech 5
they have organized persecution of unpopular
dissenters and have even, in some regions, been active as the organizers of
the Ku Klux Klan and similar ^‘un-American” (in terms of the American
Creed) movements. But, on the whole, church and religion in America are
a force strengthening the American Creed. The fundamental tenets of
Christianity press for expression even in the most bigoted setting. And,
again on the whole, American religion is not particularly bigoted, but on
the contrary, rather open-minded. The mere fact that there are many
denominations, and that there is competition between them, forces Amer-
ican churches to a greater tolerance and ecumenical understanding and to
a greater humanism and interest in social problems than the people in
the churches would otherwise call for.
I also believe that American churches and their teachings have contrib-
uted something essential to the emotional temper of the Creed and, indeed,
of the American people. Competent and sympathetic foreign observers have
always noted the generosity and helpfulness of Americans.’® This and the
equally conspicuous formal democracy in human contacts have undoubtedly
had much to do with the predominantly lower class origin of the American
people, and even more perhaps, with the mobility and the opportunities
what de Tocqueville called the “equality of condition”—in the nation
when it was in its formative stage. But I cannot help feeling that the
Christian neighborliness of the common American reflects, also, an influ-
ence from the churches. Apart from Its origin, this temper of the Americans
is part and parcel of the American Creed. It shows up in the Americans’
readiness to make financial sacrifices for charitable purposes. No country
has so many cheerful givers as America. It was not only “rugged individ-
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