In fact, American society is so unanimous on this point that prayer-only parents are jailed when they let their children die. Even sophisticated ministers doubt the gods. Since there's no magical god, he concludes, there likewise is no divine, resurrected, invisible redeemer. Many intelligent preachers secretly share Spong's view, I'm sure, but they don't dare say so. Slowly, subtly, America is becoming like Europe, where supernatural religion has faded to a tiny fringe.
Fundamentalists still call gays evil, but society at large is more tolerant.
Don't get me wrong - religion and supernaturalism still are mighty. No politician could be elected if he admitted atheism. Mystical beliefs of every imaginable sort abound. But, insidiously, subconsciously, the scientific outlook is winning among the educated, I think. Yale scholar Stephen Carter wrote a book titled The Culture of Disbelief , protesting that U.S. trend-setters no longer take religion seriously.