<P> Woodrum and Bell argue that black people demonstrate less civil religiosity than white people and that different predictors of civil religion operate among black and white people . For example, conventional religion positively influences white people's civil religion but negatively influences black peoples' civil religion . Woodrum and Bell interpret these results as a product of black American religious ethnogenesis and separatism . </P> <P> Iwamura argues that the pilgrimages made by Japanese Americans to the sites of World War II - era internment camps have formed a Japanese American version of civil religion . Starting in 1969 the Reverend Sentoku Maeda and Reverend Soichi Wakahiro began pilgrimages to Manzanar National Historic Site in California . These pilgrimages included poetry readings, music, cultural events, a roll call of former internees, and a nondenominational ceremony with Protestant and Buddhist ministers and Catholic and Shinto priests . The event is designed to reinforce Japanese American cultural ties and to ensure that such injustices will never occur again . </P> <P> Mexican - American labor leader César Chávez, by virtue of having holidays, stamps, and other commemorations of his actions, has practically become a "saint" in American civil religion, according to León . He was raised in the Catholic tradition and using Catholic rhetoric . His "sacred acts," his political practices couched in Christian teachings, became influential to the burgeoning Chicano movement and strengthened his appeal . By acting on his moral convictions through nonviolent means, Chávez became sanctified in the national consciousness, says León . </P> <P> Christian language, rhetoric, and values helped colonists to perceive their political system as superior to the corrupt British monarchy . Ministers' sermons were instrumental in promoting patriotism and in motivating the colonists to take action against the evils and corruption of the British government . Together with the semi-religious tone sometimes adopted by preachers and such leaders as George Washington, and the notion that God favored the patriot cause, this made the documents of the Founding Fathers suitable as almost - sacred texts . </P>

Discuss the general characteristics of civil religion in the united states