An Argumentative Essay on the Influence of Religion in the American Culture

An Argumentative Essay on the Influence of Religion in the American Culture
Introduction
From the colonial period to the recent time, the United States’ visitors from Europe have been commenting on the powerful current of religiousness which appears to be affecting the entire Americans’ life aspects. The American culture’s religious motif is striking today as documented by the American opinion surveys which state that it is widespread: almost all Americans profess a belief in God, reports the importance of religion in their life and anticipate an afterlife (Bradshaw, 2014). Religion influences the politics of America, causes social cohesion and unifies the people. Religion is thus a glue or bond that brings the society of America together in cohesion, unity and peace.
Importance of Religion in U.S
In the United States, religious beliefs have helped in determining the value system used in their culture. This is because majority of laws and regulations are based on the principles and concepts articulated in the Bible. It is well illustrated by the Puritans who built great learning institutions like Yale and Harvard where they set these principles that encouraged acceptable behaviors and obligatory consequences for breaking them. They also similarly align with the Bible’s Ten Commandments. Many of the first independent States according to Weaver (2001) were molded by certain religious group which later in United States merged. About 70% of all Americans today would categorize themselves as church attendants or Protestants, which is higher than any other industrialized country in the world.
Weaver (2001) explains that according to a recent poll, 94% of Americans voiced their faith in God as compared to 67% of West German and 70% of Brintons. Among the surveyed Americans, 80% reported that religion was quite or very important aspect of their life while on average only 45% of Europeans (Dutch, German, Austrians, Italians, Britons and French) gave similar answers. The Americans expect their political leaders to value religion and they anticipate the president to finish his speeches with “God bless America” phrase. Also on the dollar bill there is the phrase “one nation under God”.
Social Cohesion
Religion is a factor that contributes social cohesion in America. Social cohesion is the glue or the bond that maintains stability in the American’s society. According to Durkheim, social cohesion helps in maintaining social solidarity by sharing beliefs and rituals. Therefore religion is an expression of social cohesion. As a structural function of religion, social cohesion is observed among the members of one party during conflict. Through religion, social cohesion assists in generation of neighborhoods which was influenced by rural to urban migration.
Majority of the “unchurched” in America do not lack religious belief and nor are they hostile to the religion. According to Wald and Leege (2006) a big number of Americans who do not attend churches and foreswear religious labels however shares beliefs in the existence of life and death, the soul, sin, God, and the efficacy of prayer. In some societies, lack religious attachment may be an indication of anti-clericalism, but in America individuals who are religiously unfettered in organization terms are similar in their religious behavior and beliefs from the church-affiliated. They tend through non-institutional paths to pursue their spiritual life.
Another way religious belief influences culture is in regard to the concern to others. In individual’s own selfishness, people easily turns inwards and focuses on the self, and not society. However, religious groups assist in fostering community, worship and giving. When people have common beliefs, they end up accountable to their relationships. According to research, church participants, regardless of their sect or domination live longer and happier lives.
Einolf (2011) explains the importance of helping others in many religious traditions is a common theme which many scientific studies have a link between helping and religionists. Religious language, values and ideas are not simply psychological phenomena but can also be termed as social facts. Individuals learn religious values and ideas from others and later internalize them as part of their self-sense of identity. They tend to draw the ideas and engage in social behaviors where they construct accounts by use of language that explains their reason of helping others and the meaning of helping.
Majority of American according to Wald and Leege (2006) indicates that religion is essential in their life as it prominently figures in in their decision making. Apart from formal worship, the American are involved in congregation groups which serve a remarkable wide of array of interest, devoting considerable time to voluntary work for religious concern, and participating on committees and boards of religious institutions. Drawing on the congregants’ tangible resources, religious institutions are the most favored target and source of philanthropy. Communally, religious institutions spend a lot on social activities than any other source beside the Government.
Religious institutions are known to be leading in sending representatives abroad as doctors, teachers, missionaries and disaster relief workers than the U.S state Department. The primary source of their funding is the U.S government to the religiously-connected NGOS due to their positive reputation for effective and efficient social service delivery. The trend was established before “Charity Choice” adoption to increase the flow of federal funds to FBOs (Faith Based Organizations). Therefore, religion is Central to the American culture today.
Religion and Identity
Religion and identity are positively correlated. Religion is an expression of deep sense of unity where it is a derivative of the social circumstance which creates the environment that enables the involuntary acceptance of a certain way of life especially as group’s membership consequence. For example, individuals are made to manifest their sense of belonging and unity as a result of group membership over participation in beliefs systems or orientations, ceremonies, rituals and behavior towards objects and symbols that are perceived sacred and treated with sense of wonder and awe. There is also a correlation between religion and ethnicity. For example, participating in a religion that is characteristic to an individual’s ethnic group is in correlation to the degree of the person’s ethnic identity.
Different ethnic groups practice and perceive a single religion differently. According to Erickson insights, religion provides both a transcendental view point which helps in forging moral behaviors and beliefs based on ideological form. Additionally, religion norms are known in playing important role in religious beliefs transitioning to a community of believers. This is an implication that religious morals, values and beliefs empowers individual to understand the world better and their unique place in it. Religious ideologies assist in deepening an individual’s understanding of experiences and events as well as associating meaning to the experiences and events.
Achievement of an identity is therefore highly related with the religious commitment internalization. Religion will thus serve as a powerful influence on the identity of an individual and it is mostly influenced by the community. A group with a similar belief tends to have similar moral behaviors. For example, Muslims are, known to worship five times a day facing Mecca which is the identification of the way of living of Muslims. They close their works or stop what they are doing when it is prayer time. This is in contrary to the Christians who do not have a designed time for prayer. Watching two individual, one a Muslim and the other a Christian over a day, it is easier to identify their identity through their worshipping manner (Oppong, 2011).
Influence of Religion on Policy
Religious groups and mostly Christian churches are successfully spearheading the efforts to constrain stem cell research, obtain favorable financial exemptions, limit access to contraceptives, offer religious education in schools, and ban abortion. The reason for involvement of Church in policy making is due to the fact that they hold similar, theologically grounded preferences in numerous policy domains. The five most important are divorce, abortion, stem- cell technology, same sex marriage and education. Some policies are enacted from the perspective of church beliefs.
The churches pursue their allies with politicians and parties which have the highest expected probability to translate inclinations in to policies at the cheapest cost to the church. In turn, parties, pursues their alliances depending on their electoral support need, the church structure in question and their ideological self-conceptions. Due to “debts of gratitude.” the government consents to church demands for the years of physical and rhetorical protection. Involvement of church in policy making is an evident of the influence the religion has on the politics of America (Gryzmala-Busse, 2016).

Counterarguments
The Philosophy of Religion is Waning
The critics of religion argue that religion has been largely supplanted the science that explains the world around us, by becoming more than a social institution which maintains its hold on the Americans largely by reputation instead of legitimacy. They base their argument that long time ago, religion was in the world and it made America. According to (NPR, 2012), religion made the messy chaotic world to be amenable to human purposes and legible to the understanding of the human. It fixed things in places like the moon and the stars, justified and explained the social order, explained the force of Almighty, and told the people how they should think, feel or act. However, according to philosophers, religion has now become secular.
According to NPR (2012), the philosophers are increasingly convincingly showing that religion is making serious mistakes about matters of fact like medicine, history and astronomy. It convinces that the sacred triangle between the nature, human society and divine is absent; therefore, prayers cannot affect the marriage or weather prospects. Philosophers explain the world in a more complicated manner than ever explained by religion, by showing that the state does not require spirits, gods or God to make it work. In ethics, it is showing the biases, inconsistencies and questionable foundations of identified plethora and religious teachings which beat Iron Age patriarchal tribal mores hands down.
As a matter of identity, religion causes problems. It provokes a tribalistic defensiveness due to lack or inadequate reason making it difficult to be discussed. One example of problem in religion identity is terrorism. Majority or all terrorists are known to be of the Muslim identity (Chaves, 1994). Through this, questions arise if it is the Muslim teachings to kill and destroy human nature or it is their belief? This debate is still ongoing and the pop culture in America through media (movies and plays) portrays terrorists with Muslims attire which is a blow to the Muslim religion.
The above reason makes and raises the questions of, if religion really molds individuals morally? The philosophers argue with this example that religion is bringing more harm to the American society than benefits. There is no peace that is derived from religion but what is generated is violence which is explained by the religious conflict all over the country both external and internal. As pin pointed by the philosophers, religion is evolving to keep pace with social changes as it is becoming a cultural change rather than received truth from majority of people.
Therefore, according to Chaves (1994), secularization is declining the religious authority in America. In the last century, some of the things and policies in America like same sex marriage, abortion, divorce, sperm cell and contraception were unheard of or not legalized. This has changed in the recent time where homosexuality that is gays and lesbians has been made legal as they continue to enjoy their freedom and rights. This is against the religious teaching but is one aspect that shows that religion is no more defining the culture of America. The religion teaches, portrays or makes the world to believe that marriage is heterosexual and couples should remain faithful to their covenants in marriage till death does them apart. However, due to secularization, people are marrying and walking out of marriage to marry again without the influence of religion.
Religion and churches according to Chaves (1994) have been seen to influence the formation of policies in America. However, the separation of the state and religion shows the difference between the two. It illustrates that citizens have the freedom of worship and America cannot be termed as Christian or Muslim state as it is not defined in its constitution. According to secularization, the culture of the Americans is marked by pluralism: with many forms taken by religious faith, but meaning that it has many non-religious forms. Christian message is one of them which try to make sense to the world. Although religion is turned in to preference, it lacks the glue or the binding force where supernatural powers conceptions carry no authority in literature, arts and science.
In conclusion to this, no church determines the society’s standard of molarity, beauty and knowledge. As they make their way to popular culture, the supernatural notions have already lost their sacred aura. This is why the American citizenship requires no religious attachment and does not set rules for any religious conformity. On the other hand, the political authority develops its legitimacy from public support and legal procedures and not religious origin. Also in modern media, business or education, the influence of religious institutions is greatly diminished.
Rebuttal Presumptions
Although among the adolescents and the young people the belief of God is declining, according to the polls (Bradshaw, 2014), about 90% of Americans believes in God. This number is both for church goers and the “unchurched” which illustrates that the biggest number believes in divine nature. Secularization may be playing a role in declining the effect of religion in the society but, religion remains the central point for culture. It defines who a person is, their ethnicity, behaviors and morals. On the philosophers fact on homosexuality, religious people have not yet embraced that aspect. In religion, this is still an abomination an dthey continue to teach and demonstrate on the importance of heterosexual.
Associating terrorism and Muslim is not a fact because a small number should not be the representation of the whole Muslim religion. The case of Osama Bin Laden has caused this notion to the society. However, this should not give the conclusion that all Muslims are terrorists. Therefore the few numbers should not be used to conclude that religion is bringing more harm than benefits because the laws of religion shape the lives of its followers. For example in the Christian Ten Commandments, it is a law not to kill thus reducing the immoralities in the country. The politics of America are in a big part influenced by religion as the U.S. president upon finishing his reports ends with “God bless America” phrase. This shows that God or the supernatural power influences the day to day life of an individual.
Conclusion
Religion is affecting the entire lives of Americans. It plays an important and crucial role in defining people, influencing their moral standards, unifying them, social cohesion, political policies and other areas. There are many critics on the force of religion but the argument above illustrates the bond or the glue of religion and culture. Almost all Americans profess a belief in God, reports the importance of religion in their life and anticipate an afterlife. Therefore, what we do see and think in one way or another is influenced by our beliefs which are rooted from religion.

References
Bradshaw, W. (2014). Waning Influence of Religion in America. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-b-bradshaw/waning-influence-of-relig_b_5892516.html
Chaves, M. (1994). SEcularlization as Declining REligious Authority (1st ed.). North Calorina: The University of North Calorina Press. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.475.6488&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Einolf, C. (2011). The Link Between Religion and Helping Others: The Role of Values, Ideas, and Language. Sociology Of Religion. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1093/socrel/srr017
Gryzmala-Busse,. (2016). Weapons of the Meek: How Churches INfluence Public Policy. World Polich, 68(1), 1-36. Retrieved from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~abusse/WP2016.pdf
NPR,. (2012). U.S. Still Religious, But Trust In Institutions Wanes. NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2012/07/28/157538238/u-s-still-religious-but-trust-in-institutions-wanes
Oppong,. (2011). Religion and Identity. American International Journal Of Contemporary Research, 3(6). Retrieved from https://aijcrnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_6_June_2013/2.pdf
Wald, & Leege,. (2006). Culture, Religion and American Political Life (1st ed.). Retrieved from http://users.clas.ufl.edu/kenwald/pos6292/Religion%20and%20American%20Culture.pdf
Weaver, G. (2001). American Cultural Values (2nd ed., pp. 9-15). Kokusai Bunka Kenshu ( Intercultural Training). Retrieved from http://trends.gmfus.org/doc/mmf/American%20Cultural%20Values.pdf