A Third Great Awakening?

Glenn Beck is a wonder!
Who else, on his own hook, could have attracted over a half million Americans to the Washington mall to celebrate the nation’s heritage? Who else could have convinced so many people to travel so far to listen to message promoting honor and character?
And no wonder. Beck has done some of the best investigative reporting in recent memory. His exposes about Van Jones, Jeff Jones, and Acorn alerted many millions of television viewers to the radical fringe surrounding Barack Obama. Similarly, his defense of the American Constitution awakened a love of country in many more.
But Beck is wrong about one thing. He believes the nation is about to undergo a Third Great Awakening. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the United States was swept by two massive religious revivals. All up and down the East Coast, ordinary people renewed their faith by attending mass rallies led by inspirational preachers.
Beck may himself be inspirational, but the religious fires that fed these earlier conflagrations have long since died down. Thus, although efforts to renew our moral fiber are undoubtedly worthy, they cannot depend on restoring a comparable religious fervor.
Mind you, religious principles have been essential to creating our nation and maintaining its core values. No doubt too, they will continue to hold many of us to honest and virtuous standards.
Even so, religion cannot supplant the secular practices that have become the norm. It can supplement, but not displace them. I see evidence of this daily in my classrooms.
When I ask my students at Kennesaw State University if they believe in God, between ninety and ninety-five per cent assert they do. This is in line with surveys that show the same for the nation at large. Indeed, the United State is probably the most religious large country in the world.
But when I ask these same students to identify the first or last of the Ten Commandments, most cannot. The few who do are almost always among the oldest in the class. Nor when I ask how many of them are Protestant do any hands go up. Amazingly, though a majority are Baptists and Methodists, they have never heard the term “Protestant.”
Meanwhile, if I ask how many students are on facebook, every hand shoots up. Similarly, were I to spy on their laptops, they would likely be watching youtube, not reading passages from the scriptures.
Like it or not, ours has become a secular country. Though most people have faith, few are seriously devout. They believe in a loving God who created the world. They are also sure He will eventually save them and that they personally will go to heaven. That, however, is about it. Ask them about the specific tenets of their own churches, and they are flummoxed.
None of this bodes well for another Great Awakening. Exhortations to do what is right may be met with enthusiastic applause, but this does not presage a return to an old time religion based on fire and brimstone.
Nevertheless, Americans are by and large good people. Most want to do right. They are merely less likely to seek direct guidance from theological sources.
If Beck himself is motivated by strong religious commitments, the rest of us are apt to benefit from his courageous integrity. Nonetheless, we are unlikely to join him. We too may be distressed by the low standards set by politicians, but our response will probably be less spiritual.
So what lies ahead? Maybe there will be a “conservative” awakening. Perhaps there will be a “democratic” restoration. People may even become better educated about the need to defend the Constitution or reign in astronomical budget deficits. Expecting more, however, is only a remote possibility.
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University