REVERSE SECULARISM

During early 80s it was a widely accepted fact that the religion was an absentee in American public life. A decade later America went through a dramatic changes .in the 1990s, religious ideas, concerns, issues groups, and discourse underwent a great resurgence, and the presence of religion in public life far exceed what it had been earlier in that century. "One of the most striking and unexpected features of late 20th century America life, "Patrick Glynn( prelude to a post secular society spring 1995) observed "has been the re-emergence of religious feeling as major force in politics and culture." By the end of century, the religious resurgence had become sufficiently extensive to generate alarm among secularists who had thought history was on their side.
"Yet in the recent presidential election, religious views provided an undercurrent to the debates over school prayer, faith-based charities, abortion, school vouchers, the death penalty and even the presidential candidates themselves. It seems as though religion and politics, each controversial in its own right, are increasingly linked in our public dialogue."
Two aspects of this development were of crucial importance. First, the numbers and proportions of Americans who were evangelical protestant or who identified themselves as "born again Christians" increased significantly in the latter decade of the century, as did the number of activities of evangelical organization. Large numbers of Americans became concerned about what they saw as the decline in values, morality and standards in American society and also came to feel personal needs for believing and belonging that secular ideologies and institutions did not satisfy.
The interaction of born-again Christians and the spiritual needs and moral concerns of large numbers of Americans made religion a key factor in American public life and Christianity again a central feature of American identity.