Nothing threatens success like success! Over the years I have heard this sentiment conveyed in many different ways.
From the biblical admonition “to whom much is given, much is required,” to the age-old adage of “the higher you rise, the thinner the air,” to the Notorious B.I.G’s, “Mo Money, Mo Problems.”
This came to mind after reading the results of a new Gallup poll revealing that the vast majority of Americans interpret religion as having a decreased role in our society. Based on a sample of just over a thousand adults, 67 percent of Americans viewed religious influence as on the wane, and the percentage of those who believe religion can answer “most of today’s problems” is at the lowest point in American history.
These numbers, of course, are in stark contrast to those at the outset of the decade in general, and following the 9/11 attacks in particular. Then 71 percent of Americans saw religion as having an increased role in our society, and President George W. Bush was widely respected for being a man of abiding faith. (Anyone remember his 2000 presidential debate comments about Jesus being his favorite political philosopher because, “He changed my heart”?)
This causes me to wonder: might America be sobering up after witnessing the deleterious consequences of this personally pietistic form of evangelicalism that swept our nation over the past decade? Could it be that George W. Bush’s uncritical and unaccountable kind of belief has proven to America that the language of “faith” is an empty signifier if not measured against tangible results?
Well, this latest poll reveals that not only have Americans discovered that the “Emperor Wears No Clothes.” In the very decade that conservative evangelicals believed themselves to have claimed the culture wars with a “believer” in the White House, a crumbling economy and a quagmire in Iraq has also shown that “President George W. Had No Faith!”
Let us pray that our new president and persons from all religious perspectives can turn this pessimistic tide. Indeed faith without works is dead. And work without faith is futile!
