Text 4 listening comprehension a national religion

1. Listen to a brief talk on religion in the usa and say if there is an organized national church in that country.

Remember these words and words combinations

dominant values	основные (наиболее важные) ценности
blessing	благословение
anthem	гимн
harmful effects	вредное влияние
excessive patriotism	чрезмерный патриотизм
heritage	наследие

2. Listen to the talk again and answer these questions:

1. What is usually referred to as the ‘national religion’ of the United States?

2. What is the difference and the similarity between ‘national religion’ and a ‘national church’?

3. On what occasions can one observe the US national religion?

4. What examples of harmful effects of what is called national religion does the text give?

3. G ive a summary of the text. Speak of the positive and harmful effects of the various practices that are called the national religion. Say why modern Americans still need it.

   TEXT 5 может – в supplementary reading?

   The protestant heritage

• Before you read the text study the following vocabulary

denomination	a particular religious body with special beliefs that are different from the beliefs of other groups with the same religious faith
beverage	something to drink
Pope	the leader of the Roman Catholic Church
solely	only; by oneself alone
persecute	to treat cruelly; to cause one to suffer for religious beliefs
dominant	strongest
eternal	everlasting; having no end
proclaim	to make known; to declare officially
in league with	working together
acre	a measure of land (about 4,047 square meters)
humanitarianism	trying to improve life for human beings by giving them better living conditions; helping others
benefaction	doing no good or giving money for a good purpose
derive	to get from
patriotism	love for and loyalty to one’s country
prevailing	most common or general

Protestantism in America

T o someone not familiar with the Protestant religion, the religious scene in the United States may be confusing. There are two main branches of the Christian faith in America – Roman Catholic and Protestant. The Protestant branch has many different branches or “denominations”. These denominations have completely separate church organizations and although there are many similarities, there are also significant differences in their religious teachings and beliefs. Some Protestant denominations forbid dancing, playing cards, and drinking alcoholic beverages, for example, while others do not.

What causes this religious diversity? Perhaps the major cause is the Protestant belief that the individual, not the organized church, should be the center of religious life. This idea was brought to America and firmly established by European Protestants, and it is one reason why no single church has become the center of religious life in the nation. Instead, the Protestant tradition has encouraged the development of numerous denominations which express the religious preferences of different individuals.

The Protestant branch of the Christian faith broke away from the Roman Catholic church in Europe in the sixteenth century because of important differences in religious beliefs. The Roman Catholic church was the center of religious life in European countries; the Catholic Pope and the priests played the role of parent to the people in spiritual matters. They told people what was right and wrong, and they granted them forgiveness for sins against God and the Christian faith.

The Protestants, on the other hand, insisted that all individuals must stand alone before God. If people sinned, they should seek their forgiveness directly from God rather than from a priest speaking in God's name. In place of the power and authority of priests, Protestants substituted what they called the "priesthood of all believers." This meant that every individual was solely responsible for his or her own relationship with God.

After the Protestants broke away from the Catholic church, there was much bitterness and many Protestant denominations experienced religious persecution. The Catholic church did not recognize the right of the Protestants to have a separate church. Some Protestant denominations were so unpopular that they were persecuted by both Catholics and other Protestants. The result of such persecution was that many Protestants were ready to leave their native countries in order to have freedom to practice their particular religious beliefs. Consequently, among the early settlers who came to America in the 1600s, there were many Protestants seeking religious freedom.

This desire for religious freedom was one of the strongest reasons why many colonial settlers came to America. Generally speaking, the lack of any established national religion in America appealed strongly to European Protestants, whether or not they were being persecuted. As a result, although there were some Catholics, the vast majority of the settlers were Protestants and Protestantism became the dominant religious influence in the new land.

A large number of Protestant denominations were established in America. At first, some denominations hoped to force their views on others, but the colonies were simply too large for any one denomination to gain control over the others. The idea of separation of church and state became accepted. When the Constitution was written in 1789, the government was forbidden to establish a national church; no Protestant denomination was to be favoured over the others. The government and the church had to remain separate. Under these conditions, a great many different Protestant denominations developed and grew, with each denomination having a “live and let live” attitude toward the others. Diversity was accepted and strengthened.

Схема стр.41

The Protestant Heritage: Self-Improvement

Although many Protestant denominations exist in the united States today, all of them share a common Protestant heritage. This heritage has been a powerful force in shaping the values and beliefs of Americans. One of the most important values associated with the Protestant heritage of America is the value of self-improvement. Protestant Christianity, like Roman Catholic Christianity, often emphasizes the natural wickedness of human nature. But, as was stated before, Protestantism rejected the idea that acts of wickedness can be forgiven by a priest acting in God’s name. individuals are therefore left alone before God to improve themselves or suffer eternal punishment by God for their wickedness. In this way, Protestantism encourages a strong and restless desire for self-improvement.

The need for self-improvement, once established, reaches far beyond self-improvement in the purely moral or religious sense. In the United States the belief in self-improvement can be seen in countless books which explain how people can be happier and more successful in life by improving everything from their vocabulary to their tennis game, or even their whole personality. Books of this type are often referred to as ‘self-help’ books. They are the natural products of a Protestant culture in which people believe that ‘God helps those who help themselves”.

One of the most popular self-help books ever written in the United States was written by a Protestant minister, Norman Vincent Peale. As its title states, it stresses The Power of Positive Thinking. The key to self-improvement and success, said Peale, is self-confidence. Reading the Bible is like doing regular daily exercises; it can improve one’s self-confidence and ensure personal success in life.

Material Success

The achievement of material success is probably the most widely respected form of self-improvement in the United States. Many scholars believe that the nation’s mixing materialism and religion may seem contradictory. Religion is considered to be concerned with spiritual matters, not material possessions. How can the two mix?

Some of the early European Protestant leaders believed that people who were blessed by God might be recognized in the world by their material success. Other Protestant leaders, particularly in the United States, made an even stronger connection between gaining material wealth and being blessed by God. In 1900, for example, Bishop William Lawrence proclaimed, “Godliness is in league with riches. … Material prosperity is helping to make the national character sweeter, more joyous, more unselfish, more Christlike”.

R ussel Conwell, a Protestant minister who also preached at the beginning of the twentieth century, gave a speech about the duty to get rich, entitled “Acres of Diamonds,” more than six thousand times. In it, he said: “I say that you ought to get rich … it is your Christian and godly duty to do so.” His message was that all men in the United States have the opportunity to rise from poverty to great wealth if they will only use it. He would tell audience that they had within their reach “acres of diamonds,” by which he meant the opportunity to become very wealthy.

Conwell is an extreme example; many Protestant ministers from Conwell’s time to the present have strongly criticized the view that God’s blessing and great wealth go together. But Conwell’s great popularity indicates that he was saying something that Americans liked to hear.

Hard Work and Self-Discipline

American Protestantism, however, has never encouraged the idea of gaining wealth without hard work and discipline. Many scholars believe that the emphasis of Protestantism on these two values made an important contribution to the industrial growth of the United States. The Protestant view of hard work and discipline differed from the older tradition of the Catholic Church whereby the most highly valued work was that performed by priests and others whose lives were given completely to the organized church. The work and self-discipline of those whose occupations were outside the church might have been considered admirable, but not “holy”.

Protestant leaders brought about a different attitude toward work, first in Europe, and later in the New World. They viewed the work of all men – farmers, merchants and laborers – as holy. Protestants also believed that the capacity for self-discipline was a holy characteristic blessed by God. Self-discipline was often defined as the willingness to save and invest one’s money rather than spend it on immediate pleasures. Protestant tradition, therefore, probably played an important part in creating a good climate for the industrial growth of the United States, which depended on hard work and willingness to save and invest money.

The belief in hard work and self-discipline in pursuit of material gain and other goals is often referred to as “the Protestant ethic”.

It is important to understand that the Protestant work ethic has had an effect far beyond influencing only the members of the Protestant Churches. Members of all the many religious groups found in the United States share much of what is called the Protestant ethic. Americans who have no attachment to a particular church, Protestant or Catholic, have still been influenced by the Protestant ethic in their daily lives.

Humanitarianism

T he Protestant idea of self-improvement includes more than achieving material gain through hard work and self-discipline. It includes the idea of improving oneself by helping others. Individuals, in other words, make themselves into better persons by contributing some of their time or money to charitable, educational, or religious causes which are designed to help others. This philosophy is sometimes called “humanitarianism”.

Andrew Carnegie, a famous American businessman, expressed this idea when he said that wealthy men “have it in their power during their lives to busy themselves in organizing benefactions from which the masses of their fellows will derive lasting advantage …” Carnegie himself gave away more than 300 million dollars to help support schools and universities and to build public libraries in thousands of communities in the United States. John D. Rockefeller, another famous businessman, in explaining why he gave a large sum from his private fortune to establish a university, said: “The good Lord gave me my money, so how could I withhold it from the University of Chicago?” The motive for humanitarianism is strong: many Americans believe that they must devote part of their time and wealth to religious or humanitarian causes in order to be acceptable in the eyes of God and in the eye of other Americans.

Born-Again Christians

Perhaps the most dramatic example of the idea of self-improvement in American Protestantism is the experience of being “born again”. Some individuals who have had this experience say that before it occurred they were hopelessly lost in their own wickedness. Then they opened their hearts to god and to His Son, Jesus Christ, and their lives were completely changed. The experience is sometimes very emotional. Afterwards, individuals say that their lives are so completely changed that they describe the experience as being “born again”.

Millions of Americans describe themselves as born-again Christians, including two recent American presidents, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Born-again Christians are sometimes criticized for being too emotional and placing too little value on the importance of using one’s reasoning powers. It is also said that once they are born again, many people insist on pressuring others to have the same experience, whether they wish to have it or not. Even though it has been criticized, the experience of being born again is an important expression of American Protestantism and its tendency to make people feel a need to change for the better.