English: The United States Esperanto: Loko de Usono sur la terglobo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If I said there was a country in which during church services, church members sang tribute to their nation, carried flags in processional, celebrated national holidays, sang patriotic songs, praised soldiers as war heroes for the native land, honored soldiers in uniform who came to church, of what country would you think first. My first thought would be of Nazi Germany, where civil religion was a way to honor the Nazi state and show loyalty to the Fatherland. Hitler hated Christianity but was willing to use it for his advantage and to stir up patriotism in the German people, especially in gaining help for the war effort. Worship of God was closely tied to worship of the nation-atate of Germany.
The United States, however, is similar to Nazi Germany in the sense that civil religion is a powerful force in American society. It first role with the coming of the Puritans in the seventeenth century, who envisioned America as specially blessed by God, “a shining city set on a hill.” That passage was quoted multiple times by Ronald Reagan. The idea was originally that America would set an example of Christian government to other nations of the world. That idea was reinforced by the Second Great Awakening at the end of the eighteenth century, American Civil Religion grew with the notion of Manifest Destiny and the rise of the American Empire after the Spanish-American War. This was tied in to European ideas of empire, of spreading “Christian civilization” throughout the world. That idea became more dangerous with Woodrow Wilson’s notion that the United States has a duty to spread democracy throughout the world. Thus, “Christianity and Democracy” should be the key words used to describe American Civil Religion. Instead of one’s land being considered a gracious gift of God, and the state ordained by God to punish evil-doers (as St. Paul put it), the nation-state became an object of reverence that rivaled God. American flags are marched in procession in churches along with the cross and are placed close to the altar at many churches. National holidays are celebrated such as Memorial Day and July 4, with hymns and the National Anthem played and/or sung. Soldiers returning from war are treated like Catholic saints. Sermons focus on the greatness of America and how “Christian” America has always been, despite scholarship that shows this was not the case in early America, not even in the case of the founding Fathers. Some churches are openly supportive of wars, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Church members dehumanize the enemy and call on America to “go over there and kick their a….”. Church members often support every American military adventure, claiming that God is on America’s side, ignoring the one million Iraqi children who died due to sanctions and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed in the Second Iraq War. Only American lives are held precious by God.
The similarities with the Nazi German state church are striking. The state is venerated almost to the point of adoration. The United States flag, which has no business being inside a church sanctuary, is held in reverence almost as much as the cross. If ministers had any integrity and put loyalty to God first, the would take all national flags out of the sanctuary and not celebrate a national holiday as a Christian holiday. That may be too much to ask of American Christians, too many of whom buy into American triumphalism and silly theories such as Premillenialism that help to poison America’s policy toward the Middle East
Worship of the state should be decoupled from worshiping God. The church should pray for “all Christian rulers,” as the Anglican Prayer Book says, but not make the nation-state into an object of reverence. Traditionally it was one’s ancestral land that was worthy of veneration, not the nation-state abstraction. “Honoring the emperor< as St. Peter puts it, does not imply semi-worshiping the emperor, as the early Christians recognized when they refused to pray to the genius of the emperor. If only contemporary American Christians had the same level of wisdom.
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- Civil Religion (everydaysociologyblog.com)
Jul 02, 2012 @ 18:15:52
Descent into madness: individuals, families, groups, nations. Stalinist Russia. National Socialist Germany. China at various times. The USA during and after the Civil War . . . It is not so uncommon. A civil religion is more likely to bring on insanity than to prevent it. Though certainly disruptive the Great Depression did not drive the nation into insanity. But the post World War period has led up to the almost certain likelihood of a major psychotic spell. For example, the health care reform bill seems just the sort of thing a country adopts that is in a suicidal mood. It pleases no one except corporations and has almost nothing to do with actual health. The trick of transforming a penalty into a tax triggers another trick which is that taxes are supposed to be initiated by the House. The final form of the bill was initiated by the Senate. I suppose this is too fine for anyone to be bothered. This sort of word play and legalistic maneuvering is not a healthy sign.
Of course in a nation gone mad not all the citizens are pulled into the darkness. And the current lack of prosperity favors people remaining down to earth. We will have to wait and see.
Jul 22, 2012 @ 03:58:32
That’s not what American civil religion means. It means, instead, that people of different actual religions agree to be loyal and patriotic citizens of the United States for a secular reason: that in a fallen world, the best way of ensuring civil peace is for people of differing religions to agree on a way of getting along to together.
This is what the word “liberalism” means. It was used first in the 1820s to refer to Spaniards who desired a Republic or the Carlist alternative to a Bourbon restoration guaranteed by the Holy Alliance and Great Britain. The Spanish *liberales* felt they’d helped Great Britain win the Napoleonic war by fighting a savage guerrilla war on the Iberian peninsula and felt betrayed (in somewhat the same way Afghans felt betrayed after helping the United States win the Cold War) by being told that they weren’t ready for anything other than a theocratic Bourbon regime justified by its Catholic faith, with no other faiths permitted.
A direct result of the defeat of liberalism in Spain was its loss of its Latin American empire, its defeat by the United States in 1898, its tragic civil war and its long Franco dictatorship in which it enjoyed little cultural or intellectual life owing to Franco’s belief that to be “Spanish” was to be more Catholic than the Pope.
Whereas America, and Great Britain (especially after Great Reform of 1830 extended civil liberties to Catholics) have been “liberal” states with a civil religion understood best not as worship of the state, but the separation of church and state. In Catholicism of the 1950s this meant the American flag inside church and a dual Catholic identity. Insofar as Catholics didn’t want to have abortions performed or to be exposed to anti-Catholic professors at Princeton, they simply formed their own parallel institutions including Catholic hospitals or Notre Dame university.
Jul 22, 2012 @ 17:07:57
I agree with you on the original meaning of civil religion–what, then, would you call the near-worship of the state by many Evangelical Protestants? I suppose it could be called excessive nationalism–Patriotism is too high of a label to place on people who only want the United States to be engaged in more wars that murder innocent civilians.
Jul 22, 2012 @ 20:08:44
Intelligence and a good education are no defense against religion. The Lord Actons of the world are the exception (Papal Infallibility). The masters of statecraft are quite aware of this. During Desert Storm an acquaintance of mine, a professor of American history and civics, spoke approvingly of the civil religion which he characterized in much the same way as G has above. In liberal Boulder [often referred to as the People's Republic of Boulder] the fervor for country was extreme and received full approval from the University of Colorado professors. Blue Angels were everywhere. I knew but one person who held my position.
Religion is generally a matter of belief and faith. We do not go to a church and intellectually debate the dogma. On the contrary. That would seem very churlish. The beauty of a civil religion is that it encourages people to believe in the nation. USA uber alles. To unquestioningly follow the leader. The exact opposite of the Founders wishes. Eventually the citizen is like the abused spouse the leaves the safe house to go back for more abuse. No matter how bad things get a few soft words, sex and all is well until the next blow occurs.
I am not sure where Spinoza got his idea about civil religion but he would have done poorly in the classes taught by the professor mentioned above. I suppose what Spinoza has in mind is that since we have no national religion we need a civil religion to fill the gap–but how long such a thing would stay cool is in doubt. Soon the same nerves heat up and persons are ready to hang the dissenter. “Love it or leave it.” and worse. “My country right or wrong.” Civil religions soon become mob affairs and go after those that are different like the Muslims. And with government approval–wink, wink.
A smart person with a group looks for an enemy–preferably without. But if that fails then let’s look for the traitors.