篇章練習（一）

The United States has become “the most religiously diverse nation in the world,” according to Harvard’s Diana Eck in her 2001 book, The New Religious America. Today, Eck writes, the United States has at least 1,200 mosques and more Muslims than Episcopalians, with Islamic faithful and worship houses increasing while several mainstream Protestant denominations are in mild decline. //

Depending on whose figures you use, Muslims have passed or are just about to pass Jews as a share of the American population1. Meanwhile, Eck argues that Los Angeles has become “the most complex Buddhist city in the world” and America has become “the most religiously diverse nation in the world”. The Founders dreamed that America would be a land of spiritual freedom. Americans are now exercising that freedom to a degree perhaps unprecedented in history. The Founders would be proud, if not bewildered, to hear that it is now respectable to be a witch. //

哈佛大學的戴安娜·?？擞?001年出版了《虔誠的新美國》一書，她在書中寫到，美國已成為“世界上宗教信仰最多元化的國家?！彼f，隨著美國虔誠的穆斯林和他們朝拜場所的增加，當今美國至少有1200座清真寺，穆斯林比圣公會教徒還多，而幾個新教主流教派的信徒人數卻有輕微下降。//

這要看你參照的是那家的數據了，美國人口中穆斯林的數量即將或已經超過了猶太人。埃克還說洛杉磯已成為“世界上最復雜的佛教城市”，美國已經成為“世界上宗教最多元化的國家”。美國的開國元勛們夢想美國將成為一塊宗教自由的國土。當前美國人的宗教信仰自由或許已經達到了前所未有的程度。開國元勛們如果知道如今做巫師也受人尊敬，他們也許會感到驕傲，但也許會大惑不解。