How religion came to be in US

[spice756]

I ask this 2 times in thread before but have not got real answers has the thread was not about religion at all but about drugs and why the US is so conservative.


I'm trying to grasp why the US is so religious and why religion plays a big role in government and laws. I thought the US was built on separation of church and state in the constitution.

So what happen than ? How did it go from a separation of church and state in the constitution to religion plays a big role in government ?


And what religion groups are giving US a bad name? Some one said the baptist and born again are giving the US a bad name.And all these laws and preachers.sorry I really do not know what they are tallking about some group the baptist and born again what are they doing.

Is the US more religious now than before? Some other countries keep the religion in the home why is it that the US that is not the case?

Why are they so anti-separation of church and state and so religious .

[rebelmouse]

USA is big, nobody can give you right answer. if you understand politics, you will understand generally why religious leaders got power. but USA is big, so I don't believe that all parts of USA are so religious. sometimes leaders can be strong because of money and power, it is not automatically sign of their strength among people.
shortly: bad economic situation in life of people is good for leaders (to get support at ordinary people), if leaders have money they can have influence on politics.

[Dyslexia! Well I Never!]

Religion appeals to conservatism, nationalism and patriotism. The most numerous kind of people who are most commonly associated with these things are the right-wing element of the working class who in many cases are less well educated and more conservative in their thinking (the seed for the oft-caricatured militant inbred yokels in trailers concept.)

The problem with having hundreds of thousands of faithed-up right-wing workers is that they have a vote and naturally use this to vote for the kind of leaders who hold similarly conservative right-wing values to heart and by extention the type of leaders who pass faith based laws.

There you are! Leave that a couple of hundred years and before you know it there you are in Jesusland Mk.II.

[Decolonize The Left]

I ask this 2 times in thread before but have not got real answers has the thread was not about religion at all but about drugs and why the US is so conservative.


I'm trying to grasp why the US is so religious and why religion plays a big role in government and laws. I thought the US was built on separation of church and state in the constitution.

So what happen than ? How did it go from a separation of church and state in the constitution to religion plays a big role in government ?


And what religion groups are giving US a bad name? Some one said the baptist and born again are giving the US a bad name.And all these laws and preachers.sorry I really do not know what they are tallking about some group the baptist and born again what are they doing.

Is the US more religious now than before? Some other countries keep the religion in the home why is it that the US that is not the case?

Why are they so anti-separation of church and state and so religious .

Your answer is a simple leftist analysis of your questions. Institutionalized religion is a business in the United States. Hence it operates according to capitalist principles and seeks to maximize its profit and power. The best way to do this is to buy one's way into government so that one can influence policy production and legislation, thereby guaranteeing oneself more power and money.

That is why religion is so dominant in our political discourse.

- August

[spice756]

What I'm having a hard time to understand is people say liberals and socialists is what got the church and businesses in goverment all starting with the new deal.With the idea that goverment has control over people or businesses .

And every time I deabte with some one they say you war on drugs ,smoking ,drinking and sex and other vice is the results of liberals and socialists . And seem to bash the new deal has liberals and socialists telling people and businesses what do to.

I'm confused :( I thought this was conservatives that where obsess with religion,drugs ,smoking ,drinking ,sex and vice and brake down of traditional
norms like sleeping with some one and not marrying, gays and lesbians ,sex out of the wedlock , smoking pot and so on..

Are there more than one type of conservative ?

[Raúl Duke]

The answer could be found (or not; perhaps it would only provide more examples for the question) in the history of the U.S. I've heard of obscure "revivalist" waves of religious faith and/or formation of odd cults (i.e., I live next to a place that some odd cult use to exist in) have occurred in the U.S..

Perhaps it could have something to do that there's not exactly a "state religion" in the U.S. with lots of direct open institutional power then say in most of Europe which had state-sponsored churches, etc (with the Catholic nations being the more predominant example; although even then there was certain state sponsored Protestant churches.)

[spice756]

We been over this alot at revleft that more advance the society is , more education , higher standard of living ,technology and well being the less religious .

Imperialism , war , suppression ,poverty , lack of education and lack of higher standard of living more religious .

This theory holds true for much of the world with the exception of the US.

But that is not point here in the constitution it prohibits religion in school or goverment the US founding fathers was built on separation of church and state and liberty rights.

So the new deal or government telling people what to do to their body or telling businesses what to do is braking the law.

How did the US change from old conservatives to new conservatives thought? Just the thought of state telling you who you can sleep with or smoke pot ,drink ,smoke so on would get the old time conservatives all worked up.

So why do people say it was the liberals and socialists and the New deal that got the old conservatives thought to the new conservatives thought.

[eyedrop]

The US has a lot of poor people and maybe more importantly comparative poor people. There is also alot of people in insecure positions, ie their jobs can disappear and they can be forced into homelessness in a few months while much of western Europe has a more effective social net where your are (mostly) guaranteed someplace to live and enough money for food and such.

I feel that sense of security may have something to do with it.

The US is also the worlds superpower and that certainly breeds nationalism which in the US is entrenched with Christianity.

[Demogorgon]

The US has a lot of poor people and maybe more importantly comparative poor people. There is also alot of people in insecure positions, ie their jobs can disappear and they can be forced into homelessness in a few months while much of western Europe has a more effective social net where your are (mostly) guaranteed someplace to live and enough money for food and such.

I feel that sense of security may have something to do with it.

The US is also the worlds superpower and that certainly breeds nationalism which in the US is entrenched with Christianity.
Yeah, minus Turkey, America has more inequality and relative poverty than any other "first world" nation. That is an environment where religion thrives. We all know that.

As for the predominantly Conservative nature of it (though it certainly isn't uniform) well that isn't terribly hard to explain either. It is hard to Govern anywhere, not least a monumentally unjust country, without some means of keeping those who are being harmed in check. As the United States does not generally use violence to do this, it has to gain at least the tacit consent of the oppressed. The main means of doing this is manipulation by the corporate media, but religion is of course up there too.

Of course neither media nor religion is going anywhere so you have to promote progressive media and progressive religion, but given they are not establishment backed, that is very difficult.

[spice756]

No one here is really answering my last post here which is strange because any member here who debates at conservative web sites this comes up many times. And anyone know read about the new deal , conservatives , neoconservatives and libertarian should be able to answer this quetion.

I don't know about you but I find it is offensive when conservatives say the war on drugs ,smoking ,drinking ,vice and religion in goverment is do to liberals and socialists.

And conservatives saying the new deal was very evile and saying liberals and socialists thought that you need big brother to tell you what is good or not and act has your parent that people are to stupid.

I find this is like stabbing liberals and socialists in the heart saying it is your fault the US is mess up. And painting the founding fathers that they where some god.

[MarxSchmarx]

How did the US change from old conservatives to new conservatives thought? Just the thought of state telling you who you can sleep with or smoke pot ,drink ,smoke so on would get the old time conservatives all worked up.


Are you joking? Haven't you ever heard of anti-miscegenation laws and prohibition? Not to mention yankee puritanism that formed the heart and soul of american conservatism?



So why do people say it was the liberals and socialists and the New deal that got the old conservatives thought to the new conservatives thought.


Conservatism in America has always been about authoritarianism.