In chapter 5 of Who Are We, Huntington makes many novel arguments regarding religion in America. I was surprised to hear about the supreme court case in which voted to take the words “under God” out of the pledge of allegiance. Many argued that this was a ridiculous maneuver, and the case was overturned. Further, Huntington makes the argument that America is overly Christian, which was somewhat surprising to me. There is a lot of animosity, tension, and lack of morality in modern America that I thought would be explained by a lack of religion, but religion seems to be very prevalent in American society. In the eyes of the Europeans, Americans have a high level of religious commitment. A quote from Who Are We encapsulates this sentiment well: “The United States is by far the most religious and Christian community in the world; and that, just because religion there is the most free” (85). This quote also speaks to the lack of morality in America today. Since there is so much freedom of religion, people tend to rationalize many things they do with religion. In countries with radical religious systems, the people are all very similar because they face persecution or even death if they do not assimilate. In America, this is not the case, you have the freedom to do anything. This is something that Tocqueville talks about and demonstrates the goals of the settlers that came from Britain. The settlers came looking for religious freedom, and it has been attained.
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