[February 2002 journal entry]
Bonhoeffer’s prediction that ‘religion’ in European countries generally and in Germany specifically would die and/or become increasingly irrelevant/marginalized proved true. Reasons a similar diminishment did not occur re ‘religion’ in the United States would include – (1) the evolution of ‘religion’ into a business with a sustainable market (e.g., church construction, profitable publishing, the mega-church phenomenon, the ‘Christian music’ industry, TV evangelists, . . .), (2) accredited private and independent ‘religious’ colleges, (3) no recent tragedies on United States soil on the magnitude of the Civil War, the world wars, and the Nazi holocaust, (4) the economic and educational legacy of slavery, (5) widespread indifference toward rigorous examination of ideas, (6) . . . .
