Hauerwas - America's god is Dying

"Dietrich Bonhoeffer thus got it right when he characterized American Protestantism as 'Protestantism without Reformation.'

That is why it has been possible for Americans to synthesize three seemingly antithetical traditions: evangelical Protestantism, republican political ideology and commonsense moral reasoning. For Americans, faith in God is indistinguishable from loyalty to their country.

American Protestants do not have to believe in God because they believe in belief. That is why we have never been able to produce an interesting atheist in America. The god most Americans say they believe in is just not interesting enough to deny. Thus the only kind of atheism that counts in America is to call into question the proposition that everyone has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

--Stanley Hauerwas, excerpted from "America's god is Dying," on ABC's Religion and Ethics Portal, July 20, 2010.

Read the whole article here.