Religion, Politics and the Latest Christian Right

According to standard criteria, the United States is one of the most religious countries in the industrialized world—perhaps the most religious country. More than 40 percent of Americans claim to attend religious services each week, compared to 14 percent of the British and 12 percent of the French. These claims may reflect good intentions rather than actual behavior, but—as Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan showed—personal piety can flourish in the absence of regular church attendance. Indeed, 90 percent of Americans pray, 80 percent expect to face God’s judgment, and 60 percent (including Hillary Rodham Clinton) anticipate Jesus’ return. At least eight million Americans accept a system of Biblical interpretation called premillennial dispensationalism — not only to predict the time of Jesus’ return, but also to discover the divine meaning behind wars, economic changes, and technological innovations. In other words, probably more Amer...