| I think most Americans are very conscious about not giving unnecessary offense through religious expression already. In fact, most of them have fairly liberal attitudes towards doctrine, for example, expressing skepticism about hell or opining that persons of other religions can get to heaven. Few mainline Protestant denominations are anti- Catholic any more, and Americans score low on polls of anti- semitic attitudes. In this atmosphere, it seems to me that religious expressions are largely benign, not divisive. For example, take the Feast of San Gennaro. It is an annual event, and one of the few things that evokes the former glories of Little Italy, which has been whittled down by a booming Chinatown. Anyway, it is one of the most popular events in Manhattan. Plenty of non- Italians and even non- Catholics go to gawk, and vendors from around the city show up to hawk their cuisine, including Koreans, Lebanese, Jews, and your standard hot dog carts. To my mind, this is more like what should prevail, a welcoming of religious and ethnic diversity..... |
