By Rudy
Barnes, Jr.
Civil
religion is where religion and politics merge to shape American standards of
legitimacy. They define American values, or habits of the heart. Robert Bellah coined the term, the American civil religion, in a 1969
essay, and in 1985 he explored its meaning in Habits of the Heart:
Individualism and Commitment in American Life.
Race,
religion, immigration and sex have been dominant themes in shaping American habits
of the heart. Racial attitudes have always
been a major factor in U.S. religion and politics, and they have changed
dramatically since the Civil War and the Jim Crow era that followed. Until the 1960s, white supremacy was a norm of
the American civil religion. That was evident
when 30,000 KKK members were given a warm reception in a 1925 march in
Washington, DC.
White
supremacy was confirmed in the 1896 “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson,
and it was not overturned until the 1954 decision of Brown v. the Board of
Education. The civil rights era of the
1960s rejected white supremacy but initiated an era of racial turmoil and polarized
politics. In 2016 white Christians who
longed to return to the halcyon days of the 1950s elected Donald Trump
president. That’s what Making America Great Again was all
about.
America’s
dominant religion, Christianity, has shifted from the center of the political
spectrum to the radical right, a shift that enabled the Republican Party to
gain dominance in Congress and elect Donald Trump. Trump’s election was made possible by white
evangelicals whose prosperity gospel was once marginal in Christianity, but has
now become mainstream.
Most
Christians consider Muslims and immigrants as a threat to American values,
despite the fact that the vast majority of Muslims and Mexicans embrace libertarian
American values with even more conviction than native Christians. The xenophobic fears of white Christians are likely
exacerbated by projections that in another 20 years they will not be a majority
in America.
Then
there is the revolution in American sexual norms, with religion caught in the
vortex. Homosexuals are now protected
from discrimination by law, but Protestant denominations have been reluctant to
accept homosexuals in positions of authority in their churches, or to conduct
same sex marriages. Episcopalians and Lutherans have already split over these
issues, while Catholics and Baptist still prohibit the ordination of women.
The
American civil religion is not what it used to be, and perhaps that’s why Christianity
is declining in America. Young Americans
are not joining the church as they once did, and many church members are
leaving as “nones.” If current trends
are any indication of the future, the American dream may soon become a
nightmare for traditional Christians.
Changes
in American habits of the heart will not be resolved by scriptural authority
that condones slavery and discrimination based on race, religion and sex. Progressive religions, however, have supported
enlightened standards of legitimacy that are based on the secular norms of human
rights and democracy. It seems likely
that fundamentalist religions that continue to rely on scriptural authority to oppose
progressive change are destined to decline and disappear.
American
values and habits of the heart will continue to evolve, creating volatility in
politics and reshaping religions. Based
on current trends, there will be fewer people in the future who identify with
specific religions, but most Americans will retain an individualized faith that
determines their values, moral standards and habits of the heart, and that shapes
their politics.
The greatest commandment to love God and
your neighbors as you love yourself—including neighbors of other faiths—is a common word of faith for Jews, Christians
and Muslims alike. That love command is at the heart of the
American civil religion. It is universalist
rather than exclusivist, and promotes a politics of reconciliation rather than
a politics of polarization.
This
may seem more wishful thinking than an objective prediction for the evolution
of the American civil religion, but it will happen if people listen to both their
hearts and their minds.
Notes:
In 1967 Robert N. Bellah defined civil
religion as “a collection of beliefs, symbols, and rituals,” drawn from
American history and “institutionalized in a collectivity” that function “not
as a form of national self-worship but as the subordination of the nation to
ethical principles that transcend it in terms of which it should be judged.” See how
Trump is reshaping American civil religion, see https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2017/07/11/trump-reshaping-american-civil-religion/.
Habits of the
Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, Robert N.
Bellah, et al. (Perennial Library, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1986) cited
Thomas Jefferson and Alexis de Tocqueville (who coined the term habits of the heart) as pioneer observers
of American social mores, or norms of legitimacy. Bellah and his associates sought answers to
the questions: How ought we live? How do
we think about how to live? Who are we,
as Americans? What is our
character? Their study was based on interviews
with over 200 persons from 1979-1984 (narrowed down to four), on topics
relating to success, freedom and justice.
On How America Really Lost Its Mind: Hint, it wasn’t entirely the fault of
Hippie New Agers and Postmodern Academics. See https://progressivechristianity.org/resources/how-america-really-lost-its-mind-hint-it-wasnt-entirely-the-fault-of-hippie-new-agers-and-postmodern-academics/.
On the transformation of the American dream, see https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/upshot/the-transformation-of-the-american-dream.html.
On the day 30,000 white supremacists in KKK robes marched in the nation’s
capital, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/08/17/the-day-30000-white-supremacists-in-kkk-robes-marched-in-the-nations-capital/.
On the support of Christian
evangelicals for Trump’s redesigned
culture war, see
On the cheap prosperity gospel of Trump and Osteen, see https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/opinion/trump-osteen-harvey-church.html.
On why most evangelicals don’t condemn Trump, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-most-evangelicals-dont-condemn-trump/2017/09/01/64baab1c-8e79-11e7-91d5-ab4e4bb76a3a_story.html?undefined=&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1.
Progressive Christianity provides
an example of religious belief compatible with the American civil religion and
progressive politics. See The Eight Points of Progressive Christianity
at https://progressivechristianity.org/the-8-points/.
On Why Progressivism and Religion Don’t Go Together, see http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449285/democrats-religion-problem-progressivism-faith-inherently-contradictory.
On American Civil Religion is Dead, Long Live American Civil Religion,
see https://progressivechristianity.org/resources/american-civil-religion-is-dead-long-live-american-civil-religion/.
On why Trump can’t reverse the decline of white Christian America, see https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/robert-jones-white-christian-america/532587/.
On why Trump Can’t Save American Christianity, see https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/opinion/trump-scaramucci-evangelical-christian.html?module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Opinion&action=keypress®ion=FixedLeft&pgtype=article.
Related
Commentary:
(12/15/14): Faith and Freedom
(1/11/15): The Greatest Commandment: A Common Word of Faith
(1/18/15): Love over Law: A Principle at the Heart of Legitimacy
(4/12/15): Faith as a Source of Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy
(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?
(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
(6/18/16): A Politics of Reconciliation with Liberty and Justice for All
(6/28/15): Confronting the Evil Among Us
(7/5/15): Reconciliation as a Remedy for Racism and Religious Exclusivism
(4/23/16): Standards of Legitimacy in Morality, Manners and Political Correctness
(7/9/16): Back to the Future: Race, Religion, Rights and a Politics of
Reconciliation
(7/19/15): Religion, Heritage and the Confederate Flag
(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?
(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
(4/30/16): The Relevance of Religion to Politics
(5/7/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation
(8/5/16): How Religion Can Bridge Our Political and Cultural Divide
(9/17/16): A Moral Revival to Restore Legitimacy to Our Politics
(11/19/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation Based on Shared Values
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/11/religion-and-politics-of-reconciliation_19.html
(11/26/16): Irreconcilable Differences and the Demise of Democracy
(2/18/17): Gerrymandering, Race and Polarized Partisan Politics
(3/4/17): Ignorance and Reason in Religion and Politics
(3/18/17): Moral Ambiguity in Religion and Politics
(4/22/17): The Relevance of Jesus and the Irrelevance of the Church in Today’s
World
(6/24/17): The Evolution of Religion, Politics and Law: Back to the Future? http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/06/the-evolution-of-religion-politics-and.html.
(7/1/17): Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy
(7/15/17) Religion and Progressive Politics
(8/5/17): Does Religion Seek to Reconcile and Redeem or to Divide and Conquer?
(8/19/17) Hate, History and the Need for a Politics of Reconciliation
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