421 CHRONICLESnAn UnpeaceablenKingdomnby Paul T. StallsworthnUncivil Religion—InteneligiousnHostility in America, edited bynRobert N. Bellah and Frederick E.nGreenspahn, New York: CrossroadnPublishing Company; $17.95.nIt was one of those Saturday nights thatnspills over into Sunday morning. Invitedninto the home of a main-line Protestantncouple in split-level northern NewnJersey, the 40ish group was made up ofnJews and Roman Catholics from thenneighborhood and of visiting SouthernnBaptists from Texas. After enjoyingnmuch conversation and suffering thenconsequences of too much Tex-Mex,neveryone gathered around for a littlenguitar sing. Many songs later, the eveningnfinally ended with everybody beltingnout with feeling the old standbynAmerican PienThe loss of economic sovereigntyninevitably leads to diminished politicalnfreedom. That, at any rate, is thenclaim made by Martin and SusannTolchin in Buying Into American(New York: Times Books; $19.95;n400 pages). Using the Japanese as anparadigm, the Tolchins insist thatnthis latest threat to America must benmet by outmanaging, outproducing,nand outselling the competition.nThere is a growing support fornthis all-American thesis in a varietynof quarters. According to EdwardnLincoln, “Japanese investment is anchallenge for us. If we can’t meet it,nwe deserve to work for the Japanese.”nThe Japanese, naturally,nagree. In the words of Kiyoshi Suzaki,na Japanese expert busy givingnadvice to American business, “U.S.nmust learn from Japan,” whichnmeans singing the company anthemnevery morning and taking partnin clenched-fist cheerleading sessions.nAmerican workers are less thannenthusiastic. Billy Sellars, a unionnleader in a Japanese-owned-and-n”Amazing Grace.”nThere is something truly amazingnabout that — about Jews, Protestantsn(both main-line and evangelical), andnRoman Catholics un-self-consciouslynsinging together about the salvation ofn”a wretch like me.” There is no doubtnthat this incident demonstrates religiousncivility, or peace of a sort, or an amorphousnunity. At least an American isntempted to respond triumphantly to itnwith “Only in America!” And it is notnthat uncommon an event in the UnitednStates today: To the unsuspecting observer,nthe various religious communitiesnin America appear to be as friendlynto each other as fraternity rush chairmennare to their “rushees.”nHowever, despite such nice religiousngoings on, all is not peaches and creamnin religious America today, nor has itnever been. Uncivil Religion serves as anstrong reminder of that. This bookncontains 10 essays that describe thenreligious tensions—between Jews andnREVISIONSnoperated Bridgestone tire plant innTennessee, complains that, “For thenJapanese, their jobs are numbernone,” while in America, “religionnand family come first, at least in mynfamily.” Such total commitment tonthe firm does not fit very well intonthe American experience; it has,nhowever, deep roots in the soil ofnJapan.nWhen Admiral Perry opened upnJapan by gunboat, the country hadnneither industry nor trade, in thenmodern sense of the word. Thensamurai rulers despised merchants,ncraftsmen, and serfs — anyone unwillingnto risk life and limb fornhonor and merit. By 1905, however,nthe samurai had gone to militarynand polytechnic schools in Europenand with the help of Western technologynmanaged to defeat ImperialnRussia. In Wodd War I, they heldntheir own against the Germans. Butnin 1945, after bombing the Empirenof the Rising Sun into submission,nthe Americans came to Japan again.nThe Japanese gambit at supremacynby war had failed, but true to theirnheritage, the samurai decided tonrecoup their military losses in annnChristians, between Protestants andnCatholics, between liberals and conservatives,nand between mainstreamngroups and emerging groups — thatnhave existed and now exist in Americannpublic life. These essays on hostilitynare written by various scholars ofnAmerican reHgion (four of the 1″0,ninterestingly enough, have been activenparticipants in conferences sponsorednby The Rockford Institute Center onnReligion & Society in New York).nFurthermore, they are introduced by anshort piece by Frederick E. Greenspahnnand concluded by a longer articlenby Robert {Habits of the Heart)nBellah. It should be noted that thenessays of this book include extensivenand scholarly footnotes for the sake ofnfurther investigation.nThe book gets off to a rousing startnwith Jonathan Sarna’s chronicle ofnJewish-Christian hostilities from a Jewishnpoint of view. Sarna’s article itselfnmight even generate a few hostilitiesndifferent sphere: business. They didnso by applying their military codesnto the free market.nThe comparable model in thenWest is the command economy. Innextolling the Americans to becomenlike the Japanese, the authors ofnBuying Into America are using thenthreat of foreign economic takeovernof the United States to appeal fornalmost wartime federal control ofnthe economy. In the Tolchins’ NewnDeal vision, economic warfare demandsna corporatist order — annAmerica united spiritually, economically,nnationally, and politicallynby the need to protect the store.nIt is true that America isnbeleaguered — in many more waysnthan economic — but bottom-linenexhortations can hardly inspire thencountry’s best and brightest. Untilnthe true nature of the outside economicnthreat is realized, the Japanese—namong many other nations—nwill continue to conductntheir trade with the U.S. as war bynother means. The worst anyonecanndo (as the Japanese had found out,nby 1945) is to join battle on thenadversaries’ turf and terms.n