But to believe that the US is about to turn into a theocracy is to misunderstand both America and its believers. Nor, because of the importance of the religious right, will the US close its borders to non-Christians. (Europeans, in fact, although less religious than Americans, are also more likely to insist on the Christian character of their societies in the face of Muslim immigration than Americans.) America's conservative Christians are as American as they are Christian and conservative. And that I find reassuring, because it tells me that if they have to choose between old-time religion and the seductions of modernity, they are more likely to opt for the latter.
Take, for example, the question of belief. Fundamentalists, we are frequently told, are Bible-believing Christians who turn to scripture for answers to the problems facing modern society. But books, of any kind, do not play much of a role in American life. Few church-going conservative Protestants actually cite the Bible in daily conversation. "If we use the words 'redemption' or 'conversion,' they think we're talking about bonds," says Jess Moody, pastor of the First Baptist church of Van Nuys, California.
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/start.asp?P_Article=12363
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