1. Secularization Who Do We Trust? Secularism America’s Age Of Faith
Changes In Influence
Civil Religion

2. How Do We Know Who To Trust?
We used to assume that authorities were right because they tended to say “Cause God said so” Appeals to “divine authority” have lost credibility People don’t go to priests and mullahs now. They go to secular professionals for answers
How Do We Know Who To Trust?

3. Secularism
Believe That Jesus Is A Diety? 75%
“Religious interpretations of reality and religious orientations have yielded to explanations/justification for human behavior made in scientific and rational terms.”
Believe In Hell? 50%
Believe In Life After Death? 75%
Expositor of Doctrine:
CHURCHES
SCHOOLS
Pray To God? 90%
Eventual Outcome:
A totally non-religious society?
Claim Membership In Religious Org? 90%
Nah!
Believe In God? 90%

4. America’s “Age Of Faith”
Year
% Religious Adherence*
2008 Barack Obama Elected
66%
2000 George Bush Elected
68%
1992 Bill Clinton Elected
70%
1980 Ronald Reagan Elected
62%
1969 Moon Landing
1957 “Leave It To Beaver” On TV
60%
1930 Great Depression
56%
1914 World War I
53%
1861 Civil War
37%
1776 Signing Of Declaration
17%
Key to This Theory Is the Idea That America‘s
Age Of Faith
Has Been Replaced With An
Age Of Reason
* Various sources including Gallup, Statistical Abstracts, Adherents.Com, Finke and Stark’s Churching Of America

5. Changes In Influence? Religious Cultural Secularization Secularization
Family
Family
Education
Education
Media
Media
Polity
Polity
Religion
Religion
Market
Market
Law
Law
Housing
Housing
Leisure
Leisure
Religious
Secularization
Institutions Influence Religion
Cultural
Secularization
Religion Is Equal To Other Institutions
Religionization
Religion Influences Institutions
Changes In Influence?

6. “Loss Of Religious Authority”
Organizational Secularizaton
Internal Secularization
Loss of authority over
religious orgs
Family
Family
Institutional
Secularization
Laicization
Loss of authority over
other institutions Me
Education
Education
Media
Media
Polity
Polity
Religion
Market
Market
Law
Law
Housing
Housing
Leisure
Leisure
Individual Secularization
Religious Disinvolvement
Loss of authority over
individuals and congregants
Religionization
Religions Maintain Authority Everywhere
“Loss Of Religious Authority”

7. But Is The American Version Of Civil Religion Truly “Secular”?
Also called “religion-in-general” and “religion of the republic”
Americans share common religious characteristics (beliefs, symbols, sacred places, rituals, holydays, martyrs) and a sense of our nation’s sacredness
We’re “one nation under God”, “in God we trust”, we ask that “God Bless America”, our “eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord”, and we’re “endowed by God with certain unalienable rights”.
We pray to God in moments of crisis, transition, memory, and thanksgiving
We celebrate God’s (?) birth and death/resurrection as national holidays.
While no American president mentions Christ in his inaugural address, ALL of them mention “God”
“The same revolutionary beliefs for which our forbears fought are still at issue around the globe - the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.” JFK 1961
But Is The American Version Of Civil Religion Truly “Secular”?
Civil Religion