Wilfred M. McClay

The United States is the product of a unique history, and in no area is that more evident than in the realm of religion. Americans have managed to produce a pattern of religious life that is vibrant, diverse, and tolerant. While religious belief and practice have atrophied in much of Western Europe, in the United States they have flourished—and this despite the fact that many Western European countries continue to have established churches supported by public funds, of precisely the sort that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids. How to explain this seeming paradox?