Sometimes, I like to toss partially-formed opinion out in my blog to see how it feels on the screen and to see the feedback. I can get away with this because most of my readers are friends who provide constructive criticism. The whole wiretap thing is a prime example. I posted my "gut" feeling about it without really delving deeply into the facts or greater ethical or political questions. Today's post is similar in that this is a new train of thought, a new puzzle I seek to unlock.
Several weeks ago, I was flipping through my limited channel selection late at night. Next to ESPN, channel surfing is the real guilty pleasure I've lost from giving up cable, but I digress...
I found myself stopping at one of the many PBS channels. There in stunning HD was the National Cathedral. The context was a really interesting show about the civil religion of the United States. Now, I've heard about the concept on several occasions. I've wrestled with the conflict of God vs Nation before. I've read a great deal about the separation of Church & State. Never before have I seen a professionally edited news-drama devote an entire show to it.
I'm trying to refrain from being too judgmental with this but I'm sure that my negativity will rise to the surface. There's something frightening and idolatrous about what I watched, what I see in people and what I see in myself on a regular basis. I remind myself often that God is not American & that Jesus would not affiliate himself with one political party or another. Except that I catch myself looking at the Republican Party as being full of corrupt Pharisees & seeing the Democrat Party as the party of true believers & good Samaritans. That's my big confession for the day!
Now that we've got my personal confession out of the way, let's take a little time to talk about the concept of civic religion.
Civil religion in this context is best described as the intertwining of religious morals and trappings with national & political identity and culture. In the US, we specifically seek to avoid the establishment of national religion. Instead, through our history and national identity, a folk religion has invaded our collective consciousness. Consider these basic examples. We regularly hear the invocation of God in our political speeches. We venerate past political leaders & have our own founding myths. We have our own national monuments & have public buildings of worship.
I'm admittedly not sure where this post is going, so I'm to pause here and give us a chance to reflect on this topic. Here are some links:
Wikipedia - Civil Religion
Wikipedia - American Civil Religion
God Bless America: Reflections on Civil Religion After September 11
Frontline: The Jesus Factor
If this were a class or some sort of discussion group, there would be questions to consider. It's not, but here are a few:
How does this concept make you feel?
When does civil pride become idolatry?
What are the dangers of civil religion & national pride?
Are we experiencing some of those dangers today?
2 comments:
Are we experiencing some of those dangers today? Considering that we have Presidential candidates who want to amend the Constitution to conform to "God's Law", YES we are experiencing dangers today. The founding fathers very explicitly wrote a secular constitution without any reference to any specific gods. Many of their writings of the time also support the separate of church and state. All I can say to those who claim that the United States was founded as a "Christian Nation" is: If you want to be a patriot, stop making things up and learn some history.
The weak of heart and mind will always feel threatened by anything that is different or contrary to their own pre-established beliefs. This is true of nearly everything. A homophobe is threatened by a homosexual because they lack a level of comfort with their own sexuality. A political conservative is threatened by a political liberal (and vice verse to some degree) because the opinions of this other calls into question the rightness of their own political stances. And, of course, germane to this topic, the weak of faith are threatened by other religions or even other manifestations of their own religion.
The solution for such people is to ridicule, attack, and in whatever way possible destroy this supposed enemy. Mature individuals, like our Founding Fathers and many others still today, recognize that the world is not nor should be a monolith, all one belief, one opinion, one whatever. But we're not dealing with mature rational people here.
The establishment of a "Christian nation" isn't going to limit itself to discrimination against any and all non-Christian faiths. It will turn on all those Christian denominations not deemed "Christian" enough also.
As a Lutheran and a progressive, I find this rhetoric very threatening. Almost 8 years of the "evangelical" President have given these fanatics a sense of entitlement, as if they can remake this nation in their own image. Thankfully, W's failures across the board have largely discredited the movement, but I wouldn't expect them not to go down without a fight.
Post a Comment