American Exceptionalism?

Whenever I hear the phrase, American exceptionalism, I cringe.  Why?  Because those who use it, including our President, may not know the origin of from whence it came.  I majored in English while in college, and we had to study American Literature along with English Literature.  Those old Puritan sermons were very long and, to my mind, very boring.  I couldn’t imagine sitting and listening to them, although I guess if one thought one’s everlasting happy life depended on being attentive this would tend to focus the mind.  Otherwise, one might not have an everlasting happy life!  In order to write this blog, however, I had to google some history since my text books are packed away for a while, which is a long story and one I won’t get into here. 

The first quote here is from www.classic Lit about.com.  “Coming to this paradise of horrors, the settlers wanted to create for themselves a heaven on earth, a community in which they could worship and live as they sought fit - without interference. The "Bible" was cited as the authority for law and everyday practices. Anyone who disagreed with Biblical doctrine, or presented different ideas, was banned from the Colonies…or worse.”  As time went by, and the New England colonies became more settled by predominately English settlers, the preachers of the churches became a bit more educated.  The more southern colonies retained more of the European religious traditions, with Virginia being more Church of England, and Maryland (originally named ‘Mary’s Land’, for the Virgin Mary) was where Catholics were allowed to live.  They were encouraged, or downright required, to live there in order to keep their “pestilent” views out of the general population.

Later John Winthrop and other Puritans cited the New World as a city on a hill to be a beacon to Europe, a New Jerusalem, as it were.  From www3.gettysburg.edu:  “Morally, the Puritans believed that their role in society was to be a chosen people called to create a New Jerusalem.  This was a much different view than most of the other religions held at the time.  As Calvinism has predestination as well, and some aspects of the Puritan belief system were decidedly based on other religions at the time, this was what set the Puritans apart from everyone else.  They truly believed that they were a group apart from the rest of organized religion.” 

As time went by, this virulent strain of Puritanism was diluted by more and more immigrants from other countries than England – Lutherans from Scandinavia, more Catholics from Eastern and Southern Europe, and people who adhered to the principles of the so-called Enlightenment.  There were large pockets, who maybe no longer believed strictly in predestination, but definitely believed that because they were “Bible-based”, they were still a group set apart, chosen by God, and were exceptional. 

In the early 1980’s, Bill Moyers had a segment on his excellent TV show regarding the resurgence of the radical religious right, which is what we seem to call Puritans now.  In this segment he interviewed a Rousas John Rushdoony, considered to be the founder of what is now called Christian Dominionism.  In the Moyers interview, Rushdoony was discussing the fact that the United States will soon be a Christian nation.  Moyers calmly asked Rushdoony the obvious question, “What if people do not want to be Christian?”  I will never forget Rushdoony’s response, “Oh, but when we get through, they will want to be”.  Through with what?! 

This was about the time that Ronald Reagan was elected President.  Reagan popularized trickle-down economics, the rise of corporate control, inherent racism with his “welfare queen” diatribes, and his insistence that we had to close our southern border before the “brown hordes” from Mexico and Central America flooded our country.  All of this along with renaming the United States the “Shining City on a Hill”.  While this seemed sort of silly to most people, it had a remaining and long suffering meaning to the religious right who believe that they alone are destined by God to govern this country, based on their own interpretation of the Bible, and here was the President of the United States preaching it!  Does any of this sound familiar? 

I know that most people who use the term American exceptionalism haven’t a clue what it refers to.  Most think it refers to our system of government with its checks and balances, our Constitution and Bill of Rights, the fact that so many people from divergent cultural backgrounds can live together in peace, and our remarkable standard of living.  And these are remarkable.  But they are no more remarkable than other democratic countries – Canada, England, Australia, South Africa, Germany, etc.  These all have our problems and our freedoms.  

Take the lines from up above, “The "Bible" was cited as the authority for law and everyday practices. Anyone who disagreed with Biblical doctrine, or presented different ideas, was banned from the Colonies…or worse.”  We still have this same attitude alive and well with the radical religious right, and their constant complaining that they are persecuted and are losing their religious freedom.  And on what do they base this?  The fact that they must acknowledge and accept that we live in a pluralistic society, and that all of our belief systems must comply with that.  Their only solution to complicated issues is to pass a law based only on their religious criteria.  No other ideas allowed here.  If you don’t comply with their beliefs, you are banned!  Or in the present, criminalized. 

What I would like to have banned is the term, American Exceptionalism!!