如今，美国人越来越担心国内日益严峻的政治分歧，而正在这个紧要关头，哈佛大学社会科学学家罗伯特 普特南和其圣母大学的同行大卫 坎贝尔联手出版了一本书，研究到底是什么维系了美国的团结统一。但是，也许没人能想到，他们笔下的“凝聚力”却归结于‘宗教’。

　　America's religiosity has been extensively documented and should surprise no one. It is, Sarah Palin said in her own new book this week, "a prayerful country". More than eight out of ten Americans say they belong to a religion. More Americans than Iranians (four out of ten) say they attend a religious service nearly once a week or more. What is a surprise―or should be, when you think about it in the way Messrs Putnam and Campbell have―is that religion in America is not more divisive. They argue in "American Grace" (Simon & Schuster) that religion gives Americans a sort of "civic glue, uniting rather than dividing".

　　对于美国人的宗教痴迷情结，人们也早已司空见惯了。莎拉 佩林在其于本周发行的新书中也如是说，‘美国是个宗教虔诚的国度’。10个美国人就有8个称自己信教。10个伊朗人里面有4个称自己一星期至少会做一次宗教服侍，但是他们跟美国人比起来就又稍逊一筹了。按照普特南和坎贝尔的逻辑往下推理，我们得出结论：相对政治来说，美国宗教要和谐的多―――这还真够耸人听闻的。在其新作中，普特南和坎贝尔说，上帝保佑美国，宗教将人民万众一心，使美国团结和谐而不会走向分崩离析。

　　The unifying impact of religion would not be so puzzling in a country where people were pious but where there was only one dominant religion―Catholic Poland, say. Americans, by contrast, hold intense religious beliefs but belong to many different faiths and denominations. That should in theory produce an explosive combination. So why doesn't it?

　　若是国民都虔诚信教，国内主导宗教也莫非一种(比如说，波兰的天主教)的话，这个国家定能团结和谐。但是美国却正好相反，美国人宗教信仰情结热切，但是公民的宗教信仰，皈依的教派却又庞杂各异。这在理论上来说，会促使国内纷争频发，斗争不绝，但是美国为什么却又安然无恙，幸免于难了呢?

　　There are the protections of the constitution, of course. But the authors put much of it down to Aunt Susan. Such is America's churning diversity that most Americans are intimately acquainted with people of other faiths. Aunt Susan may be a Methodist, and you a Jew, but you know that Aunt Susan deserves a place in heaven anyway. In fact, Susan does not have to be your aunt, because in addition to the Aunt Susan principle the authors have invented the My Friend Al principle. In this case you befriend Al because, say, of a shared interest in beekeeping, and later learn that he is an evangelical Christian. Having an evangelical Christian in your circle of friends makes you warmer than you were before to evangelical Christians. Not only that, befriending someone from another faith makes you warmer to other religions in general.

　　当然了，美国宪法在其中的护驾作用功不可没。但是普特南和坎贝尔认为，“苏珊姑姑”(与自己有不同信仰或皈依其他教派的亲朋好友)在维系美国和谐统一上发挥了不可泯灭的作用。美国人都有那么几个与自己信仰不同的熟人亲友。“苏珊姑姑”也许皈依了卫理公会教派，而你自己却信仰犹太教，但你丝毫不怀疑“天堂与永生”是她最终的归宿。其实，这也不光是对你的姑姑才成立，普特南和坎贝尔在书中不止提出了“苏珊姑姑原理”，同时也介绍了他们所谓的“某朋友原理”。由于都热爱养蜂，你和某人成了志气相投的好友，过了一段时间，你发现他是福音教会信徒，有了这么一个福音教会的朋友，自然而然，你对福音教派基督徒就比以往亲昵热情多了。另外，一旦与信仰不同的人交了朋友，你对其他宗教的看法都会随之友好包容起来。

　　This is not just a hunch. Mr Putnam and Mr Campbell administered a questionnaire to a representative sample of thousands of Americans in the summer of 2006, and in the spring and summer of 2007 they went back to question the same people. Sure enough, those whose circles had became more religiously diverse in between the surveys expressed measurably more positive feelings towards other religions.

　　这绝不仅仅只是个猜测而已。2006年夏天，普特南和坎贝尔曾选取了上千名美国人做了一项问卷调查，转而来年春天，他们二人又做了回访。结果证实，那些交际圈广泛，拥有不少信仰迥异朋友的受访者，对待其他宗教的态度明显温和友好些。

　　Is this web of interlocking personal relationships among people of many different faiths the secret transmission mechanism of religious tolerance in America? One happy feature of modern America is indeed that soaring interfaith marriages over the past century mean that the average person has a good many Aunt Susans. Roughly half of all married Americans today are married to someone who grew up in a different religion from their own. So it is little wonder that when the authors asked their subjects whether a person of a different faith from theirs could find salvation and go to heaven, almost nine out of ten said yes.

　　‘信仰各异的亲朋’是否就是维系美国信仰包容的那条纽带呢?一个世纪以来，跨宗教婚姻盛行于美国，因此每个人都有很多亲友信奉着他教。已婚美国人中，一半人都选择了异教婚姻。这也就不难理解当被问及，‘他教教徒是否能皈依天国’之时，为何九成受访者的答案都是肯定的了。

　　Three blemishes in paradise天堂的三位不速之客Yet Mr Putnam and Mr Campbell are also careful not to claim too much. About a tenth of Americans are what they call "true believers" holding strong and inflexible views about morality and their own creed's exclusive pathway to heaven; Aunt Susan is not welcome in their company. Also worrying is the continuing "God gap" in politics: Americans who are more religious have become Republicans and the more secular have become Democrats. A final blemish on the picture of tolerance is that the circle of those who are tolerated is tightly drawn.

　　其实，普特南和坎贝尔也是尽量有所保留。在他们看来，美国大概只有10%的人信仰够纯洁，他们坚守自己的道德底线，坚信自己的信仰才是唯一的“天国阶梯”。‘苏珊姑姑’不能跟他们一道得到永生，皈依天堂。而政治界的宗教分歧也颇令人担忧:信仰笃定之人大多皈依共和党，而“世俗”之人大多加入民主党。

　　For example, even though nine out of ten Americans think that people of a different faith can get into heaven, a much smaller proportion think that a Mormon should get into the White House, as Mitt Romney discovered in his 2008 campaign to win the Republican presidential nomination. When the authors asked respondents to rank their feelings about other religions, the resulting scores were highly uneven. Almost everyone said they liked "mainline" Protestants, Jews and Catholics. Evangelical Protestants liked almost everyone else more than they were liked in return. Mormons liked everyone else, while almost everyone else (except Jews) disliked Mormons. And almost everyone disliked Muslims and Buddhists more than any other group.

　　2008年，米特?罗姆尼竞选共和党总统候选人恰恰映证了这样一个实事：尽管10个美国人里就有9个都相信其他教派信仰的人最终都能获得永生，上得天堂，但是没几个人支持魔门教徒入主白宫，掌管政务。普特南和坎贝尔让受访者根据自己的喜好，给各大宗教排个名，结果虽是萝卜白菜各有所爱，但是几乎所有人都对主流新教，犹太教以及天主教抱有好感。福音派新教徒虽相当博爱，但并不是所有人都爱他们，魔门教徒也是爱众人，但是除了犹太教徒之外，没人对他们有什么好感。而穆斯林和佛教徒几乎是众矢之的，没人待见。

　　Part of the problem for Muslims and Buddhists in America could be their small number: few Americans have a Muslim relation or a Buddhist friend. But since being few in number has not prevented Jews from eventually becoming the most popular religious group in the nation, this is not a good enough explanation on its own. Osama bin Laden did not help American Muslims by attacking America in Islam’s name, but Mr Putnam and Mr Campbell坎贝尔 believe another factor is at work: the fact that Muslims, Buddhists and Mormons do not have a place in what people have come to call America's Judeo-Christian framework. Tolerance of Jews and Christians only? That is not quite so impressive.

　　穆斯林和佛教徒在美国地位不高也许是由于人数有限，毕竟也没几个美国人跟穆斯林抑或是佛教徒有什么瓜葛。但是话又说回来了，尽管信徒不多，犹太教还是成了美国最具影响力的宗教，所以说，这症结并不在人数上。本拉登打着伊斯兰的旗号恐怖袭击美国，这对于在美的穆斯林来说，实在不是什么“锦上添花”的事，但是普特南和坎贝尔却坚信他们之所以处于劣势地位还是另有原因的，那就是：穆斯林，佛教徒还有魔门教徒都游离于美国渐渐兴起的‘犹太基督教框架’之外。难道美国只能接纳犹太教和基督教么?这可不怎么好啊。

　　Worse, anti-Muslim feeling may be growing. In a recent survey the Public Religion Research Institute found that 45% of all Americans, and 67% of Republicans, agreed that the values of Islam were "at odds" with America's way of life. Two scholars from the Brookings Institution, E.J. Dionne and William Galston, worried aloud this month that divisions over Islam inside America may now be deeper than they were ten years ago. George Bush tamped down anti-Muslim feeling, but some of today's Republicans―Newt Gingrich, with his wild crusade against sharia, is a spectacular example―seem intent on stirring it up. What chance does Aunt Susan stand against the demagoguery of fear?

　　美国上下仇视穆斯林的情绪徒增，这无异于雪上加霜。公共宗教研究所近期的一份调查显示：45%的美国人以及67%的共和党人都认定伊斯兰价值观与美国生活方式格格不入。本月，布鲁金斯研究所的学者迪纳和威廉高尔斯顿公开了他们的担忧顾虑，‘美国伊斯兰教内部的分崩离析比十年前有过之而无不及。’乔治布什虽稍稍平息了国人对伊斯兰的仇视情绪，但是如今一些共和党人非要推波助澜，把一摊清水搅浑了(典型的代表人物为众议院领袖纽特 金里奇，他近乎疯狂的仇视讨伐伊斯兰教)。‘苏珊姑姑’能抗的住群情激奋么?