I have mentioned before how much I esteem Thomas P.M. Barnett. In a recent blog post he points out a USA Today story about a new term in American Islam: Sushi
The quote from the USA Today story:
He calls himself “Sushi,” the popular term for a combination of Sunni and Shiite. Once the glib nickname for the children of intermarried couples, it has become shorthand for Muslim who blur sectarian lines.
Here’s TPMB’s comments:
Gotta love “Sushi.” Yet another example of Japan’s successful cultural exports! Seriously. A term people choose for themselves because the word strikes them as cool.
None of this is to suggest that America grows less religious, because just the opposite is true. But don’t confuse rising religiosity (more faith and more practice) with rising religion (the institutions and hierarchies and sectarianism that come with them).
The rule set on religion gets looser in America even as people get more intense about it. It becomes more personalized and direct and about “the book.”
And it becomes non-denominational as a result.
Read Stephen Prothero’s history of faith in America in his Religious Literacy, and you’ll see the argument plain as day.
Yet another reason why I do not worry about losing any “Long War.” The outcome was never in doubt. Just our belief in ourselves.
That book “Religious Literacy” looks pretty good.
