What dimension is mostly seen today in US culture?

This is a
controversial question, and the answer that follows is admittedly based as much on anecdotal
evidence as it is on objective mechanisms such as surveys and opinion polls. It is also a
question intertwined with US politics and one's answers to it will probably be based to some
degree on one's political and even economic views.

The conservative scholar
Dinesh Desouza, in his book What's so Great about America (2002), asserted
that, although the popular view of America is that it is a religious country, in reality,
religion has relatively little authority and influence upon or within the US public. Despite
this being a view, we'd think would more probably be expressed by a figure on the liberal side,
it is difficult to refute what Desouza has written on this point and what was true in 2002 is at
least as valid in today's society. Whatever dimension of religion does still hold away in US
culture has little effect on the personal and everyday lives of most people, including those who
identify as religious believers. Some examples:

1) The so-called "blue
laws" through which retail stores were kept closed on Sunday were long ago abolished. In my
own anecdotal experience, I've observed that even devout Christians do not think it a sin to
work on Sunday, though several generations ago such activity was in fact
seen as morally wrong.

2) Fewer people than ever, including regular
churchgoers, believe that divorce is a sin. At the same time, the number of couples living
together without being married and the number of single-parent households is higher than ever.
One sometimes hears statements to the effect that "Mormons [or another minority sect] do
not believe in living together before marriage," as if people in general are unaware that
this used to be a standard (and rigid) belief of all Christians and
practically all major religions.

3) The routine depiction in mass media of
violence, killing, profanity, and explicit sexthe extent of which would not have been
countenanced by religious people several decades ago.

One could argue that
all of the above indicate simply that religion itself has changed and that people are still
devout in spite of favoring or accepting behaviors that would have been condemned by the
religious in the past. This is partly true. But at the same time, the dimension in which more
traditional religious precepts still play a role in the US is politics. It's hard to deny that
the thrust of the conservative movement, at least since the Reagan administration, has been at
least partly grounded in religion. One key issue that motivates conservatives is abortion, and
the opposition to abortion rights is usually described as having a religious basis. So is the
opposition to "socialism." Conservatives regard liberalism as merely a cover for
"socialism," and probably at least a subconscious reason socialism is so fully opposed
is that to many people it is equated with communism. In its manifestations throughout history,
communism, of course, has been officially atheisticin Karl Marx's philosophy, in the Soviet
Union, and in Communist China. Therefore to many Americans socialistsknown instead as liberals
or progressives in the US, since "socialism" is thought a "dirty" wordare
considered irreligious and atheistic as well.

The movement in the US to deny
that climate change is a reality (or at least to deny that it's man-made) also has, at least
partly, a religious dimension. Many Christians believe (as Ronald Reagan publicly asserted 35
years ago) that events signaling the end of the world are coming together. This view then sees
climate change, even it is an actual phenomenon, as either the work of God or as something it
would be useless to try to ameliorate since the end times are approaching anyway.

One could enumerate further instances of a religious dimension in US politics despite
Desouza's point being largely true about the relative lack of religious influence or authority
in US public life and behavior. What is undeniable is that there is a larger
religious dimension in any aspect of American culture than exists in any of the
countries of Western Europe and perhaps even in Canada. For example, every US President or
political candidate routinely ends every speech with the phrase "God bless America." A
few years ago, a Canadian commentator appearing on a US talk-show opined that any candidate in
his country who ended a speech saying "God bless Canada" would "never be
elected."