Evanne Hefty

Government Hour 3

Is There A Culture War?

            If you average out the opinions expressed in the pewforum article, it is pretty unclear if a culture war in our country actually exists or not. On one side you have James Hunter saying that the there is this huge polarization. He argues that the culture that once had huge divisions in our country such as religion still solidly exists today and that this is a huge factor on politics. There are extremes of about seven percent on each side of the spectrum. On the other hand, Alan Wolff disagrees and says that really there isn’t anything big enough to be considered a “war”. His point being that political issues determine people’s religious and philosophical views (as shown through his example of the Southern Baptist Convention endorsing the Roe v Wade decision). The biggest point I picked out of the article (and from some of my chosen ones) is that most Americans don’t participate or even really recognize this “culture war”.  They are in the middle and so only really notice conflicting views if they actually impact their own lives directly. Generally, it seems that even if this war did exist most people don’t care.

When incorporating the three articles I choose, the opinion seems to be strongly in favor that there is a culture war. Of course they differ in their ideas about the war, and how important and or strong it is, how it’s changing (becoming more important or less) and what really applies to the definition of a culture war. Examples of its existence include the attacks on moral issues such as firebombing abortion clinics and controversy over gay rights as well as changes in ideas of issues relating to marriage. Although some of the articles I read are in the middle or of dissenting opinion of a culture war, when ideas are combined from all of them it is obvious there is some sort of culture war in America, its strength and importance being more at debate than its actual existence.

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=176

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/the-persistence-of-the-culture-war/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/opinion/06douthat.html?_r=0