The left-of-center Public Religion Research
Institute (PRRI) and Brookings Institution have released a
post-election survey showing nearly 60 percent of Americans believe
God has assigned America a “special role” in human history. Over 80
percent of white evangelicals believe in this special role for
America, as do two thirds of minority Christians. Majorities of
white Mainline Protestants and Catholics also agree. Two thirds of
the religiously unaffiliated disbelieve in any special role for
America.
Probably the surveyors were discomfited by the results,
especially that the devotees of American exceptionalism were not
confined to white evangelicals but were nearly as numerous among
minority Christians, which presumably mostly means blacks and
Hispanics. American exceptionalism essentially originated with the
ancestors of Mainline Protestantism, who were America’s earliest
European settlers and America’s primary religious pillars for most
of our history. A half century of leftward drift by Mainline church
elites unsurprisingly has dampened their confidence in
exceptionalism, but most still adhere. Likewise for most Catholics.
The survey frustratingly does not provide a detailed break-down,
but almost certainly most religiously active Mainline Protestants
and Catholics are more prone to American exceptionalism than the
nominally affiliated.
Much and perhaps most of American exceptionalism
originated with the Calvinist English religious dissenters who
settled New England, the first wave of whom landed at Plymouth Rock
in 1620. With Thanksgiving, America celebrates those dissenters’
founding holiday. Later waves of Puritan immigrants conceived of
their American adventure as an “errand in the wilderness.” And some
metaphorically likened their new civilization to the Chosen People
of the Old Testament, with special blessings but also special
obligations, always under both God’s gracious care and sometimes
severe judgment. Subsequent immigrants were not always as
religiously devout. But the Puritan conception of America on a
special mission from God that would benefit not just Americans but
all peoples was reinforced by the heroic and spiritually animated
struggle for American independence. Later immigrants, though far
removed from the British Protestant tradition, still often
comfortably embraced the notion of America as a sort of Promised
Land, especially when compared to the travails of the old country.
The Calvinist conception of American exceptionalism expanded to
include other Protestants, Catholics and Jews.
PRRI’s chief, a seeming proponent of “progressive”
Christianity, tried to put a naughty slant on his survey’s results
about American exceptionalism “Americans who affirm the idea of
‘American exceptionalism,’ a belief that God has given the U.S. a
special role in human history, have a distinctly more militaristic
approach to foreign policy than those who do not affirm this idea,”
Robert Jones ominously observed. “Those who believe in American
exceptionalism are more likely to favor military strength over
diplomacy as the best way to ensure peace, and they are also more
likely to say torture can be justified than those who do not
believe God has given the U.S. a special role.” In other words,
American exceptionalists are potentially dangerous.
A columnist for the Evangelical Left Sojourners
group was also disturbed by the survey. “As a Christian, I tend to
believe that God has a ‘special role’ for every person and
every nation,”
noted Evan Trowbridge, a
Sojournerscommunications
staffer. “Too often,
however, we confuse ‘special’ with ‘exceptional.’ If we agree that
God has granted the United States a special role in history, then
shouldn’t we also agree that God has granted Thailand and Kenya a
special role? Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s what most of the
respondents in the study had in mind…”
No, it almost certainly is not what most American
exceptionalists have in mind. Even non-believers in American
exceptionalism must grant that America’s story has an outsized
influence on the world that exceeds Thailand’s and Kenya’s. Many on
the Left fret that American exceptionalism is synonymous with
superiority, imperialism, and exploitation. But the original
Calvinist theorists, from the first Thanksgiving onward, envisioned
American civilization having special duties, not special
privileges. Failure to comply with these duties risked divine
wrath. Later, more generic versions of American exceptionalism, at
least at its best, cited America’s special role as exemplar of
democracy and justice. American exceptionalists were never
exclusively property owning, patriarchal, Anglo-Saxon Protestant
white males. Social reformers of all races and both genders,
especially religious ones, successfully cited exceptionalism to
justify their appeals for a more just America.
The traditional spirit of Americanism exceptionalism was
articulated by a Methodist bishop at World War I’s close: “We want
universal humanity to share the freedom we enjoy — a freedom which
we believe to be God-given and the birthright of every human being.
But let us not become self-righteous and self-complacent. We too
have sinned.” Citing “over-luxurious habits” and
“pleasure-seeking,” the bishop still rhapsodized: “God is not
through with us. He has a mighty task for us, which no other nation
is able to perform,” entailing not “world domination” but “world
leadership.” He wondered: “Are we prepared to assume this awful
responsibility?” The answer depended on America’s “attitude toward
the great moral issues, upon our attitude toward God and His
cause.”
American exceptionalism is not traditionally a pretext for
domination, as critics like to allege, but instead an “awful
responsibility” intertwined with obligation towards God and the
rest of the world. We should mull over that thought as we enjoy a
holiday given to us by some of the first American
exceptionalists.
