Is Religion is Good for American Democracy?

At a time when Christian Nationalism is finally being recognized as a threat to democracy, not only by legacy media, but also by the National Council of Churches and the rapidly secularizing population of the US, Robert Wuthnow, the dean of American sociologists of religion, sets himself a daunting task in attempting to make the case for religion’s positive impact on the health of our democracy. In my judgment, his case fails. It fails in part because Wuthnow wants to be fastidiously fair to all players in the religious arena, and he doesn’t fully appreciate how some of the players will never play fair.