Sunday, January 09, 2005
In the beginning was America, and America was with God, and America was God
Civil religion occurs when a significant number of a nation's inhabitants identify the interests of their nation with the interests of their deity. This situation is mutually beneficial for both government and religion. The government, wrapped in religious garb, achieves divine legitimation of its activities, and so critics of governmental policies can be cast in the most extreme negative light: as anti-god. The religious practitioners likewise acquire a sense of legitimacy. Governmental support for the religion and the prevalence of public religious symbolism lends a sense of plausibility to the religion. The religious practitioners avoid a situation in which the plausibility of their beliefs would rely upon the logic and practices of the religion itself. The practitioners' psychological security is buttressed through the public institutionalization of their religion.
We must bear in mind these dynamics of civil religion when we consider the ongoing battles in the US over prayer in school, "under god" in the pledge of allegiance, political debates over homosexual marriage, and the public display of Christian symbols. One of the most important features of the current US political situation is the manner in which civil religion has coopted Christianity. Many Christians are unable to distinguish between the US and the church as the primary agent of god's activity in the world.
Civil religion inevitably leads to idolatry, as the nation-state acquires quasi-divine status. Civil religion also fosters confusion and coercion, as an attempt is made to apply ethical and spiritual principles that should properly apply to Christians to the entire populace. (And that's granting for the sake of argument that Christians have gotten their own ethical and spiritual principles right.)...