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long-established Mormons expanded outside Utah, becoming, for
example, one of the major religious groups in California. Scientology
was a more recent success. Islam has also grown markedly, so that there
are now about eight million American Muslims, although the potential
political impact is lessened by the fact that only one in eight are of Arab
origin (others come from Iran, South Asia and Indonesia). Conversely,
70 per cent of Arab Americans are Christian. Religious themes also
played a major role in popular culture, as with Raiders of the Lost Ark, the
most successful film of 1981, The Passion of the Christ, an unexpected
122 a l t e r e d s t a t e s
major film success in 2004, and Dan Brown s novel The Da Vinci Code
(2004), a leading bestseller. The theme of spiritual danger was also a
potent one, as in the film The Exorcist (1973), and this and other horror
films in part drew on a widespread concern about black magic as a
direct challenge to Christianity. Black magic was not so explicit in many
horror films, but the location of many plots, for example Poltergeist
(1982) in suburbia, created a sense of menace as a normal part of life.
Television evangelists, such as Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart and
Pat Robertson, used modern technology and became prominent and
influential figures, just as Billy Graham had been. Indeed, in August
2005, when Robertson publicly called for the assassination of President
Chávez of Venezuela, his call made a considerable splash. Accepting
no barrier between religious conviction and public politics, the
Evangelical groups pushed hard to back particular causes and candi-
dates: Carter in 1976 and Reagan in 1980 and 1984, although Reagan
turned out to be more socially liberal than they wished. Christian
conservatism led first to the  Moral Majority movement, founded in
1979, and then to the Christian Coalition.
Opposition to abortion and other social policies linked Evangelicals
to the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul ii (1979 2005) was wooed by
the Republican leadership, particularly Reagan, who saw him as an
important ally in the Cold War, and George W. Bush. This has been
linked to the Catholic hierarchy s policy in the Presidential election of
2004, in particular its criticism of politicians, such as John Kerry, will-
ing to support abortion. The Catholic hierarchy had shown itself more
forgiving of clerics who covered up sexual abuse by fellow clerics, but,
as a sign of major shifts in American society, there was far less public
willingness to accept such cover-ups by the early 2000s. The deference
that the Catholic Church had relied on has greatly lessened. Further-
more, as an indicator of the tendency to contest issues in the courts,
and also to relate causes to compensation, one of the major conse-
quences of this shift was a series of high-profile settlements in sexual
abuse cases that put successive dioceses under serious financial strain.
The travails of the Catholic Church were of greater importance because,
with the rise of the Hispanic population, it was of potentially growing
significance in the usa.
c ul t ur e wa r s 123
The election of Bill Clinton as President in 1992 and, even more,
his re-election in 1996, was a major blow to the political cause of
Evangelicalism. More generally, the movement failed to achieve many
of its goals. It also, however, contributed to, and reflected, a powerful
sense that religion was normative in public life, as was a strong private
faith. Both separated the usa from Western Europe. In the Presidential
election of 2000, candidates vied to assert their born-again piety in
a fashion that did not characterize, for example, Australian, British,
Canadian, French or German politics. Naming the political philosopher
who had most influenced him, George W. Bush replied  Christ. Because
he changed my heart . As President, Bush backed the White House
Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, although, in assisting
religious bodies to obtain federal money for social services, it was
accused of a political agenda, not least trying to win Evangelical and
black support for the President. Other politicians, and not just
Republicans, also emphasized their personal faith, including Tim Kaine,
who won the Governorship of Virginia for the Democrats in 2005. That
year, there was considerable agitation about the alleged failure to cele-
brate Christmas as a Christian feast, and religious Conservatives pushed
this issue hard, as in the  Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign .
Religiosity contributed to a situation in which many Americans
were happy to describe themselves as conservative, the percentage
describing themselves thus rising from 29 in 2000 to 33 in 2004, while
those describing themselves as moderates fell from 50 to 45 per cent,
although most were also religious. At the same time, polls indicated
that, while many saw themselves as having become more conservative,
they also thought that they were more liberal than their parents, and
increasingly willing to support the legalization of homosexual unions
and the use of marijuana, and opposed to the death penalty, even
though there was also greater opposition to trade unions.
Convictions of a Christian worldview did not differentiate between
religion and other forms of public and private opinion and conduct. As
a result, Christian commitment was a major cultural impulse, and, as
such, there was popular pressure to allow prayer on public occasions,
for example, in schools, at graduation ceremonies and at school sports
games. This was in response to one of the more proactive judicial deci-
124 a l t e r e d s t a t e s
sions of the liberal 1960s and  70s, Leoman v. Kurtzman (1971). In a deter-
mined attempt to maintain the constitution s separation of church and
state, the Supreme Court came out against anything that might suggest [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]