There are times in history when the dark drums of God can barely be heard amid the noises of this world. Then it is only in moments of silence, which are rare and brief, that their beat can be faintly discerned. There are other times. These are the times when God is heard in rolling thunder, when the earth trembles and the treetops bend under the force of [God’s] voice. It is not given to men [and women] to make God speak. It is only given to them to live and to think in such a way that, if God’s thunder should come, they will not have stopped their ears.

If you say simply that pressures toward democracy are created by the market, I would say yes

The problem with liberal Protestantism in America is not that it has not been orthodox enough, but that it has lost a lot of religious substance

If the cultural elite has its way, the U.S. will be much more like Europe

But we don't have an example of a democratic society existing in a socialist economy - which is the only real alternative to capitalism in the modern world.

There is a continuum of values between the churches and the general community. What distinguishes the handling of these values in the churches is mainly the heavier dosage of religious vocabulary involved

One can't understand the Christian Right and similar movements unless one sees them as reactive - they're reacting to what they call secular humanism