The positive enthusiasm garnered by the writings of the New Atheists evidences a growing sentiment in North America about organized religion and the role it should play in the public square, especially when it comes to setting public policy and legislation. The enthusiasm is a reaction to what many feel is a long overdue, justified and growing response to the church's historical abuses and their continued bullying tactics, particularly in the public square, with what feels like their very obvious elbows in our collective nose.
The New Atheists are hardly the first to speak out against these sorts of abuses. Although there have always been those who have challenged religious authority, the Enlightenment was climacteric as various social and intellectual forces swirled together to rise up against the self-appointed moral powers of traditional political and ecclesiastical institutions. Along with struggling for democracy and with it, personal autonomy, two centuries later we now talk about (borrowing from Harvey Cox) the "secular city." Not surprisingly, this is the very notion religious conservatives want to challenge.
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