Dear {GENDER} {LAST_NAME}:

The searing immigration debate has raised core questions about what it means to be American – and who is not American. The conflict has shed light on an obscure but pervasive phenomenon in America known as civil religion – a belief system that binds the nation’s deepest-held values with transcendent meaning.

Civil religion is an underlying component in the immigration debate – both past and present. Many Americans feel their national creed (a term sometimes used in place of civil religion) is threatened, disrespected or diluted by the newcomers. Proponents of immigration point out that past generations of immigrants have thoroughly adopted American values and indeed have become their greatest proponents.

Read the complete article on SageLaw.

The connection between civil religion and immigration is further explored in the University of Massachusetts Press book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective by Bruce T. Murray.

“This book includes an especially engaging and in-depth chapter on American civil religion. This chapter traces American civil religion from John Winthrop’s (and Ronald Reagan’s) ‘city upon a hill’ to contemporary disputes over immigration, the ‘culture wars,’ and the religious rhetoric of Bush and other political leaders.”
— Daniel O. Conkle, Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University (from the July, 2009 issue of the Catholic Historical Review)

Religious Liberty in America is available at libraries throughout North America, and it may be purchased from the University of Massachusetts Press.

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