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Carolina Civic Voice Winter 2005-06 Vol. 5, No 4 |
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On the Other Hand Does ‘Reflective Pluralism’ Have a Chance?
The United States is currently passing through a very strange period. The easy confidence with which most Americans functioned from the 1940s through the 1990s has been sorely shaken. The calamitous state of U.S. foreign affairs since the twenty-first century dawned is bewildering enough. But in this same period when anxiety and uncertainty have escalated and our standing in the international community has plummeted, unusual internal developments are also forcing themselves upon our consciousness, causing yet deeper bewilderment. 1) The old landscape has changed dramatically. Whatever one’s personal experience may be, these United States are being transformed in ways that could not have been imagined a century ago. We have become a far more diverse nation, both religiously and ethnically, than was ever before the case. Although, according to recent polls, 80% of Americans still identify themselves as Christian, there is little realization of today’s social reality. In round numbers, there are now some 1.3 million American Hindus, some two million American Muslims, 2.5 to four million American Buddhists, and hundreds of other lesser known religious groups, while the combined membership of most of the formerly “mainstream” Christian churches has been significantly declining. 2) We are, nonetheless, a strange nation of religious schizophrenics. The recent surveys of sociologist Robert Wuthnow underline this phenomenon (America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity). In our public discourse we still embrace religious liberty and profess our tolerance for all. We claim we respect the adherents of all other religious traditions, but at the same time the airwaves are filled with talk about how America is (and has been and should be) a Christian nation, founded on Christian principles, properly displaying public Christian symbols. The separation of church and state, enshrined in the First Amendment, is mentioned only in the bogus criticism leveled at the Supreme Court for having “taken God out of the schools.” Apparently we still have not developed much of what Wuthnow calls “reflective pluralism.” It is easier to pretend that we are still living in Will Herberg’s 1950s America of ‘Protestants, Catholics, and Jews,’ period. The new cultural diversity thus presents an unparalleled challenge that calls for openness and honesty. The shock of 9/11/01 understandably caused great national trauma and confusion, awakening all kinds of fears. Some worry that “outsider” religions stemming from non-democratic lands might swamp America’s established democratic traditions. (Over 20% in Wuthnow’s polls labeled Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus as ‘fanatical, violent, backward, or strange’). Conversely, members of these groups expressed their own fear that their freedoms are being curtailed (76% of American Muslims reported incidents of discrimination against them in their workplace). 3) Wuthnow’s polls also show that most American Christians prefer to follow a pattern of “getting along” rather than “getting acquainted.” They have had only minimal and superficial contacts with non-Christian Americans and would like to keep it that way. They tend to see many of them as ‘exotic’ and prefer to avoid them or at least keep their contacts with them to a minimum. This may be at the root of much of the current dilemma. Genuine pluralism entails far more than an occasional handshake with a stranger. It presupposes that we think seriously about diversity and how to respond to it and embrace it, rather than ignore it or merely accept it as a bother. Wuthnow states flat-out that “older strategies of dealing with it will not do. Today we need greater reflectivity and mindfulness about the cultural and religious significance of genuine religious diversity.” This is not something that is easily learned or readily listened to, especially when fear and suspicion of others have begun calcifying hearts. But the consequences of not addressing the issue could be horrendous. The recent turmoil in France is a sad reminder of what happens if newcomers to a community are not welcomed and integrated. As Harvard’s Diana Eck has put it: “From the Brooklyn Bridge to the Golden Gate, civic and religious bridge-building is our greatest challenge today. Without bridges and traffic, we will allow ourselves to be fragmented into a multitude of separate religious, ethnic, and cultural enclaves.” The burning question is: what does it mean to be a ‘true American’ in the twenty-first century? It is not enough to continue a past style of a simpler age. If the First Amendment is taken seriously, it means that a Methodist and a Muslim feel equally at home, enjoying religious freedom to practice their faith even as they are learning more about – and respecting -- one another. Anything less is failure to attain the goal of truly “reflective pluralism.”
Jim Megivern is Professor Emeritus in Philosophy and Religion and UNC Wilmington. He is a contributing fonder of CCV and a regular columnist. |
