Beliefnet - "Christianity Has Left the Public Square"

First we had a scathing indictment of the modern neoconservative; now comes this hard assessment of American civil religion:

America may be brimming with religion, but it is a kind that generally has little to do with the traditions and teachings that underlie it. It has become, for the most part, yet another servant of the economic and social order that sets the real priorities: success and material comfort. The prophets Jeremiah and Amos, who regularly scolded ancient Israel for crushing the poor, have been sent to the woodshed.

In the process, Christianity has become a private concern, a rescue squad to revive those crippled in free enterprise combat. It has taken on the functions of therapy and self-help, preaching its own version of self-centeredness that leaves political matters such as "justice" far behind. Religion hasn't been booted out of the public arena by mean-spirited secularists; it has largely quit going out in public to bring the full message of its heritage.

Rather than looking critically at social policy, in the manner of the prophets, Christians ignore or passively accept it at a time when prophets are so urgently needed.