Basic Rites

By R.Z. Sheppard

UNDER GOD: RELIGION AND AMERICAN POLITICS by Garry Wills

Simon & Schuster

445 pages; $24.95

Garry Wills has carved out a substantial career as a social critic by cutting against the ideological grain. Conservatives find him too liberal, and liberals complain that he is too conservative. Similarly, scholars think of Wills as a journalist, and journalists often feel that his work is unnecessarily academic.

Under God should displease everyone, except millions of churchgoing Americans who do not have to read the book because they already know what Wills takes more than 400 pages to point out: the U.S. remains an avidly religious nation.

Wills directs his argument at secular intellectuals who have focused on the decline of Establishment theologies and overlooked the rise of Fundamentalist Christian sects. Knowing the nonbeliever's weakness for social-science data, he begins by preaching the gospel according to George Gallup. Nine Americans in 10 say they have never doubted the existence of God. Eight in 10 fear they will have to answer for their sins. Life after death is a reality for 7 out of 10. More important, Wills notes, Americans vote their religiosity. All candidates must invoke the Deity or face rejection on Election Day. And there are indications that the voters want more than lip service. During the 1988 presidential campaign, two surprisingly strong candidates, Pat Robertson and Jesse Jackson, were ordained ministers.

Even Wills' detours into history, biography, political science and theology cannot obfuscate the obvious. Americans are embracing evangelical religions because they feel spiritually and morally adrift in a society that judges values on a slippery curve of relativity. Secular intellectuals are also edgy, although they are likely to call the sensation angst and seek the blessings of a psychotherapist.

Under God abounds in complexities and ironies, not the least of which is how a nation founded on Christian values could mandate a separation of church and state. Wills observes that the American body politic routinely functions as if there were no division. The proscription of a state religion does not prevent Congress from starting its sessions with a prayer, or the Treasury from printing "In God We Trust" on its currency. The current abortion debate has been theologized, as reflected in official church positions and the doctrinal straddles of politicians.

Separation, Wills concludes, is less important as a shield against theocracy than as an assurance of religious freedom. "A burden was lifted from religion," he says, "when it ceased to depend on the breath of princes." From this perspective, the huffings and puffings of evangelists do not sound too bad.