Expressions of Civil Religion, Essay Example

Expressions of Civil Religion

Civil religion is defined as a unifying nationalism that uses religious words and means to promote national values and patriotism. The current Civil religion is governed by a trinity of doctrines which are; Acknowledgement of a Supreme God, that God punishes vice and rewards virtue and finally, taking the principle sin to being religious intolerance. It is the ecumenical ground upon which everyone affiliated to a religion even if it is not mainstream assemble together regardless of denominations. Thus, the god of civil religion is the higher power or simply the god behind everything else and above all religion (Fullbright, 10).

Civil religion is different from Christianity in that it involves a collection of symbols, beliefs and rituals institutionalized in a collectivity and with respect to all sacred things. It is mostly evidenced in all ceremonies, public speeches and monuments which are full of symbolism, references and narratives which are intended to unify Americans under a common symbolic banner. In one of President Kennedy’s speech, he was quoted as saying that man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. In his inaugural address, John Kennedy mentioned god 3 times, however,  his speech implied that he was referring not to the Roman Catholic god but the god of American civil religion, a-god-of-us-all (Thoreau, 85).

Civil religion is an expression that religionizes national heroes, national history, national ideals and national values. It proposes a god that favors America, a god behind all gods. The symbolic unfinished pyramid with the eye on top on the one dollar bill has the Latin words, Annuit Coeptis meaning. “God/Providence has smiled on our begginings.” and below it: Novus Ordo Seclorum.” meaning a new order of the ages. These two mottos when combined do merge religious and national beliefs.  All that the motto is saying is that God was with us when we begun building the nation, and we shall under one god establish a new order of the ages (Hartz, 55). The god has not been specified meaning that it is the god of civil religion, the god above all other gods.

Civil religion uses methods and religious type words to come up with a nationally unifying religion. It uses the three doctrines, namely the salvation history that tells of how God saved America from their enemies, hallowed rituals e.g. the state of the union address and inauguration or national funeral of a president. The saints of Civil religion are the national heroes e.g. Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln etc. These saints have their images carved on mountains and have parks reserved for them. The images of St. Peter’s in Rome are far out numbered by images of Americas past heroes in Washington, DC.  American constitution is the sacred text of which you can see people lining up to take a glance at the original autograph placed in a glass shrine.

The American civil war was the great sacrifice. The substitutionary death of giving ones life that many may live is told in Lincoln’s death story. America has Arlington cemetery with an eternal flame as one of its dozens of sacred places. The congress has been urged to pass laws ensuring that nobody may desecrate the American flag as it is taken to be a sacred object.

Patriotism is merged with piety and freedom is the greatest value for which Americans are willing to die for and even to kill for. Thus, many a Christian soldiers go off to war merging patriotism with faith and singing the hymn “…as he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free..”. Mayflower compact is the Americas book of Genesis. Declaration of independence is its exodus. Washington’s farewell address is the chief of the various periodic prophesies (Hartz, 32). The constitution and the bill of rights is the law. God bless America and the star spangled banner is the civil religion psalms. Lincoln’s second inaugural address is the gospel of true Americanism. Civil religion has so many similarities with Christianity such that on every 4^th of July many churches merge the two into one service.

Works cited

Hartz, Louis. The Feudal Dream of the South: The liberal Tradition in America. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1955.

Senator Fullbright, William. “Speech “as reported in The New York Times, “April 28, 1966: 8-12.

Thoreau, David. In Yehoshua Arieli: Individualism and Nationalism in American Ideology. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press. 1964.