Habits of the Heart, American Trinity

Habits of the Heart, first published in 1985, is a classic study of American society and character.  How to create and maintain a moral and social community in the midst of a highly individualistic society was their fundamental question.  ". . . . it is individualism, and not equality, as Tocqueville thought, that has marched inexorably through our history."  Freedom not balanced by justice degenerates into individualism.  Economic freedom, free market, capitalism, not balanced by justice leads to inequality, to oppression, to a wide gap between rich and poor.

When individualism and inequality dominate, they destroy community and civic responsibility; this leads to a decline in personal character and morality.  As Bellah and associates concluded their 1985 edition, they stated with some fear and trembling that an overemphasis on power and materialism might lead to the death or our civilization:

          Yet we still have the capacity to reconsider the course upon which we are
          embarked.  The morally concerned social movement, informed by republican and
          biblical sentiments, has stood us in good stead in the past and may still do so
          again.  But we have never before faced a situation that called our deepest
          assumptions so radically into question.  Our problems today are not just political.
          They are moral and have to do with the meaning of life . . . . Our common life
          requires more than an exclusive concern for material consumption.

Eleven years have passed by.  How is the state of America today?  Not good!  Bellah entitles the Introduction to the Updated Edition, "The House Divided."  The issues discussed in 1985 "have taken on a critical urgency."  Uneasiness, anxiety and a gnawing uncertainty are widespread.

We revisit individualism which "values independence and self-reliance" in the pursuit of economic happiness.  Does individualism "serve us well as a society?"  The answer in 1985 was "a qualified no", because it was partially checked by other values such as community, commitment and citizenship.  In 1996 it appears that the "no" is no longer qualified.  Commitment, community, and citizenship are fading more and more and they are dominated by an ever-increasing materialistic individualism.

Today, there is a "crisis of civic membership . . . . temptations and pressures to disengage from the larger society."  This disengagement is "threatening to [our] social coherence."  Our class divisions are deeper and wider.  "The result is not only income polarization, with the rich growing richer and the poor poorer, but also a shrinking middle class increasingly anxious about its future."

Increasingly a powerful elite is taking over political and economic control with less of "a sense of obligation to the rest of society."  In fact, this knowledge/power elite has become "predatory" toward society.  This elite has become an oligarchy which "looks out for its own interest by exploiting the rest of society."  And not only the underclass.

In France, the unemployed are called "the excluded" and they are a concern of the whole society.  Here they are condemned; they are failures and a burden to society.  The elite "wax indignant as the cost of welfare," and at the same time, they are changing government policies to make themselves richer.  Today, "we have reached the high point of income inequality in our recent history, and our civic life is a shambles."  We have a "revolution of the rich" with a "war against the poor."

A part of the civic disengagement is a decline of social capital---the "features of social organization, such as networks, norms, and trust, that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefits."  There has been a decline in American associational life which impressed Tocqueville in the early 1800s.  The poor have suffered the loss of both economic and social capital, but nearly all of America is suffering from the loss of social capital.

The above powerful forces have also negatively impacted the family as well.  Excessive individualism undermines everything it touches including religion and family.  There is a crisis of morality both personal and social.  Which came first is sort of a chicken and egg question.  Second and third generation Puritans added individualism and materialism to their ethnocentrism/racism.  This negative trinity of values has corrupted our morals, personal and social, ever since.

One of the worst manifestations of the American trinity is what Bellah calls "neocapitalism" or Korten calls "corporate capitalism" which is a far cry for Adam Smith's brand of capitalism.  Not only is neocapitalism dominant ideologically, but through the power of enormous financial contributions it dominates politically as well.  "One of the conundrums of contemporary individualism is that it can combine an absolute belief in the freedom of individual choice with market determinism.

Potentially, Bellah argues, the church has the greatest power to challenge individualism and neocapitalism and turn society toward community and social responsibility.  If the American church would return to its biblical roots which combine personal righteousness and social justice, it could become a source of renewal in terms of both personal and social morality.  It is my opinion, however, that at present most of the American church has been so contaminated by individualism, materialism and ethnocentrism/racism that it needs to be renewed before it can renew society.

Bellah argues that our present national crisis is of the same magnitudes the moral/social crisis that led to the Civil War.  Fortunately, the nation had a strong leader in President Lincoln who stood for righteousness and justice, and the nation survived.  Bellah states:


          If we apply Lincoln's words to our situation we can say that the house today is
          divided not by slavery, but by deepening class divisions . . . . We believe that the
          degree of class difference today is wrong in the same sense that Lincoln believed
          slavery was wrong; it deprives million s of people of the ability to participate fully
          in society and to realize themselves as individuals.  This is the festering secret that
          Americans would rather not face.  Many nations have persisted while divided into
          a small elite that lives in luxury and a large mass in various stages of insecurity
          and misery, but this nation, with the ideals and hopes of the last 220 years, cannot
         permanently so endure.

As a nation we stand divided---a huge gap between rich and poor, a continuing ethnic division (with some signs of improvement), and ideologically divided between conservative and liberal.  We need a prophet to arise to call us to repentance---to personal righteousness and social justice.  Excellent scholars such as Nicholas Wolterstorff and Howard Snyder say that the Greek word dikaiosyne combines righteousness and justice in one word and in many cases ought to be translated as justice or righteousness/justice.  "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness/justice."  (Mt. 5:6) or "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice/righteousness," (Mt 6:33)

In the OT righteousness and justice are joined together like Siamese twins.  So also they should be in the NT.  Unfortunately, most English translations have separated the two so that we see the word righteousness often but seldom see the word justice.

Unless the church recaptures the holistic gospel of righteousness/justice, it has little chance of leading  this nation out of its crisis.  But a church empowered by the Holy Spirit that preaches both jesus Christ as personal Savior and the kingdom of God as justice for all, could renew itself and then the nation.

About the same time that Habits of the Heart was published, I had coined the term American Trinity to capture the same phenomenon.  I define the American Trinity which is in intense computation with the Christian Trinity as individualism, materialism and racism.  Today, 2018, I would define the American Trinity as hyper-individualism, hyper-materialism, and hyper-ethnocentrism.

Matthew Stewart in an article June, 2018 The Atlantic, asserts that America has gone from bad to worse.  It is now dominated by 10 percent of the population with the other 90 percent either stagnating or declining. Stewart says the top 10 percent, the rich, are a predatory 10 percent who have rigged the political and economic system to such an extent that the survival of our democracy is at risk.

Unfortunately, white evangelicals have no biblical social ethic, no understanding of the
kingdom of God as justice.  So they are much more a part of the problem than they are the solution.