Robert Bellah wrote an essay—"Civil Religion." Daedalus 96 (Winter 1967): 1-21—and proclaimed:
"While some have argued that Christianity is the national faith, and others that church and synagogue celebrate only the generalized religion of the 'American way of life,' few have realized that there actually exists alongside of and rather clearly differentiated from the churches an elaborate and well institutionalized civil religion in America." Bellah gives credit to Rousseau for coining the phrase civil religion, and further explains, "Although matters of personal religious belief, worship, and association are considered to be strictly private affairs, there are, at the same time, certain common elements of religious orientation that the great majority of Americans share. This public religious dimension is expressed in a set of beliefs, symbols, and rituals that I am calling the American civil religion." Civil religion is not anti-church or anti-clerical, and does not position the church against the society, or separate the sacred from the secular. Rather, it provides for a combination of certain elements of the two traditions in such a way that the American citizenry does not recognize the difference or distinguish between the two. The fact that two seemingly opposing elements are intertwined, in a fashion, raises no basic conflicts.
"much more related to order, law and right than to salvation and love." [Finally], " . . . civil religion at its best is a genuine apprehension of universal and transcendent religious reality as seen in or, one could almost say, as revealed through the experience of the American people."
Bellah explains that the God of civil religion is
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Is God an American?
By Carl Mirra
During the Vietnam War, discussions of American civil religion emerged as people challenged sacred notions of American decency and global leadership. Then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara felt that a "theology of containment" too readily pushed the U.S. into Vietnam. The war on terror has resurrected this national religious discourse. Recall that George W. Bush announced that a battle between good and evil commenced following the 9/11 catastrophe, and that "God is not neutral" between them.
Scholar Robert Bellah categorizes such expressions as part of America's civil religion; which is not simply the worship of the America nation as such, but an understanding of the American experience "in light of universal reality." This understanding has very deep roots in American history. Consider that Benjamin Franklin proposed that the Great Seal portray Moses parting the Red Sea. The Founders may have stopped short of including Moses in the Seal, but they did not hesitate in proclaiming that, "God favors this undertaking, a new order for the ages." John Adams went so far as to argue that the early settling of America was part of a "grand scheme in Providence," a theme echoed in the Declaration of Independence. America's founding fathers were deeply embedded in Puritan symbolism. Metaphors that portray Americans as chosen people with a divine mandate to lead the world permeate U.S. history. While those symbols experienced various permutations, they were alive and well at the Republican National Convention in New York City in late August 2004.
It should come as no surprise that the Republican National Convention was saturated in religious imagery. It was a rally cry for the president of good and evil, who boldly announced after the World Trade Center disaster that a, "monumental struggle of good versus evil" began, and "good will prevail." Like an Old Testament prophet, Bush weaves an apocalyptic story, a monumental struggle against evildoers, whereby freedom shall triumph. In fact, Bush believes his global leadership is "part of God's plan," a charge to keep the world safe.
And his Republican counterparts agree. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, declared on the opening night of the convention that, "an important part of the Bush Doctrine" entails having "faith in the power of freedom," which always "prevails." It is the "story of the Old Testament," Giuliani insisted. Reverend Max Lucado buttressed the former mayor's observation that same day: "God of our fathers, you direct the affairs of all nations…Thank you for this nation." Senator John McCain drove the point home. "Our blessed, beautiful country," continues its "rendezvous with destiny."
Later in the convention, the Democratic dissenter, Senator Zell Miller, encouraged the delegates to appreciate the president's moral embrace of this divine destiny. "I am moved," the senator said, by the fact that Bush "is unashamed of his belief that God is not indifferent to America." Bush is "a God-fearing man," with a "spine of tempered steel," qualities that inspired Miller to demand that we, "God Bless George W. Bush." Miller's extravagant rhetoric locates God's presence among Americans.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also placed a divine stamp on American global power as well as all things American. The former action hero and bodybuilder first pledged that the Republicans will "terminate terrorism," adding a dose of comic book masculinity to Bush's righteous proclamations. But, Schwarzenegger's litmus test for determining whether or not one is Republican relies on all the trappings of civil religion. "If you have faith in free enterprise, faith in the resourcefulness of the American people, and faith in the U.S. economy," then you are a Republican. Freedom and free markets are indeed woven into the fabric of Republican politics inasmuch as they are woven into America's civil religion. Indeed, George W. Bush capped off the ceremonies in an almost homiletic tone, "Freedom … is the Almighty God's gift to every man and women in the world." Here again Bush's redemptive language conflates faith with American values, conjuring up a civil religion, the sense that the U.S. is on a divine mission to liberate the world.
Of course, George W. Bush is hardly the first president to evoke such religious metaphors. Democrat Harry Truman's Inaugural Address championed this sense of mission. With the defeat of Nazi Germany, Europe joins the United States in promoting democracy and "with God's help the future of mankind will be assured in a world of justice," Truman argued. President Eisenhower spoke of "a conscious renewal of faith in our country and in the watchfulness of Divine Providence." Successive administrations joined this chorus of evangelists. John F. Kennedy professed that he was "guided by the standard of John Winthrop," who also confronted a "perilous frontier." Whereas the Native Americans occupied Winthrop's frontier, Kennedy faced the evil Kremlin that infiltrated Vietnam and Cuba. In light of these dangers, the U.S. remains a "city upon a hill" with a "great responsibility" to fulfill its historic destiny of "national greatness." Images of divine election saturate the speeches of almost every Cold War president. And, no discussion of American presidents and religious discourse is complete without noting Ronald Reagan's query: "Can we doubt that only a divine Providence placed this land, this island of freedom, here as a refuge to all those people who yearn to breathe free?"
Bush's use of providential rhetoric shares a marked continuity with his predecessors, but it also symbolizes a certain departure. Bush's sheer hubris combined with failing interventions abroad certainly raise at least some doubt that "divine providence placed this land." For example, Bush attempted to equate U.S. military prowess in Iraq to a religious redemption after he sensed a victory was on the horizon. In sermonic fashion, Bush declared an end to major combat operations from the USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Bush thundered, "To the captives come out -- and to those in darkness be free." Many more U.S. soldiers have died since Bush supposedly set the captives free than before his announcement, yet Bush remains blinded by his missionary vision.
After the grotesque Abu Ghraib prison torture as well as the Fallujah and Najaf attacks, one might expect the convention speakers to call for a dose of humility. But there is a shortage of humility in Washington these days. Perhaps the speakers and those who cheered them would do well to recall Martin Luther King Jr.'s words: "Don't let anyone make you think that God chose America as his divine messianic force…. God has a way of standing before nations with judgment and it seems I can hear God saying to America, 'You are too arrogant.'" Surely, King's nuance and maturity is shoulders above the Republican Party's sophomoric rhetoric, including Schwarzennegger's crude "economic girlie men" line that roused the convention to applause.
Carl Mirra teaches American Studies at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury and is currently working on a study titled, George W. Bush and the Resurrection of God's New Israel (Davies Publishing Group, forthcoming).
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