America's Civic Religion

America's Civic Religion

Published Monday, February 24, 2025 NEXT MEETING MEETING 2025 March 5, 2025 Featuring: COUNTERING GENDER IDEOLOGY Dr. Lauren Schwartz and special guest John O'Connor SEE DETAILS BELOW. Send this newsletter to a friend here. BOB LINN America's Civil Religion Last week, grim news from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) told the world that Islamic terrorists beheaded 70 Christians who had been rounded up and forced inside their church where they were then murdered. Watch the story on video here. Surveys tell us that the people of the DRC are well over 90% Christian.  In spite of this, the nation has never known political stability. Its military is known for its savage treatment of women and politically active women are sent to prison where they are raped and subjected to sexual violence. In this sense, the nation is reflective of China, a people unwillingly ruled by an elite few narcissistic sociopaths. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have no interest in the welfare of the Chinese people.  The people of Congo need better government. The moral poverty of both the DNC and the CCP governments underline the importance of a Christian conscience in matters of state.  It was the Christian perspectives of both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison whose religious devotions were far from the deism of which they are often accused.  Their Christian perspectives continue to influence the way American government works. American academia has sought to rewrite American history in order to present it as a secular experiment. The election of Donald Trump will do much damage to the revolution of the political left.  However, the secularists are well entrenched in academia and will continue to push for a secular society. If we don’t want to descend into the chaos of the Congo or the darkness of China, we need to push back. We must understand and appreciate what it is that has made America so exceptional. Both Jefferson and Madison were devout students of Scripture and believed that Christianity was the best model for good government.  For Jefferson, Christianity was the superior of all religions. Madison was a “new light” Presbyterian.  “New light” Presbyterians believed that personal salvation and personal piety were as necessary as were the tenants of the more complex Calvinistic Reformed training James Madison received (and loved) at Princeton. (Princeton was the "new light" Presbyterian College.) Theologically, Jefferson was a bit scattered.  He was mostly a Unitarian who considered himself a devout follower of the teachings of Christ, but did not believe in the divinity of Jesus. However, Jefferson did believe that the nation’s past was made possible by the active hand of God.  He also spoke of the nation's need to look to God for guidance for the future. Madison was thoroughly orthodox and could have been a fire-breathing Presbyterian preacher. Both advocated for religious freedom but also for an America based on a religious foundation. Martin Marty, acclaimed author of the Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America, spoke of America’s Christianity as the underpinning of what he called America’s less theologically specific, less theologically detailed, “civil religion.” Marty spoke of the role of “civil religion” as the “ordering faith” of American government and American culture.  (Dr. Marty’s academic career is legendary. He was recipient of multiple prestigious awards, 80 honorary doctorates, and much more.) Dr. Marty (a Lutheran) introduced to American religious study the “ordering faith” of the nation, society, and its culture. He saw the “saving faith” of the individual as the work of God through the church as that which makes possible the less doctrinally specific faith of the nation who looks to God for the guidance and protection of the “ship of state”.   The purpose of the former, he writes, is to: save souls, make sad hearts glad, give people wholeness, provide them with the kind of identity and sense of belonging they crave . . . [and so on]. God in the White House author, Richard Hutcheson, Jr, explains that the ordering faith of Marty’s civil religion depends on a society in which saving faith is a ubiquitous element of society.  While the institutions of church and state are unconnected administratively, public virtue is the lifeblood of the state.  It comes only through the cultural integration of religion and society.   And, most importantly, it is something that every U.S. President has acknowledged. Harvard summa cum laude graduate, Robert Bellah has earned an international reputation for his work related to the sociology of religion.  In his famed 1967 article titled, Civil religion in America, he writes that America’s identity has been always a Biblical one. Even our founding Presidents, writes Bellah, have considered Europe was their Egypt and America their promised land.  All with a vision to be a light to the nations. Referring to the second inaugural speech of Thomas Jefferson, he reasons: The idea of the “American Israel” is not infrequent.  What was implicit in the words of George Washington becomes explicit in Jefferson’s second inaugural when he said, “I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life.” The Continental Congress named Benjamin Franklin and two future Presidents (John Adams & Thomas Jefferson) to form a committee to design the nation’s seal. In his book Emblems of American Community in the Revolutionary Era, author Lester Olson includes a handwritten note from Benjamin Franklin describing his proposed design: Moses standing on the shore, and extending his hand over the sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh who is sitting in an open chariot, a crown on his head and a sword in his hand . . . Even one of America’s lesser spiritually devout Presidents, John F. Kennedy (JFK), in his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, spoke as if America’s mission was linked to God’s mission on the earth.  When Kennedy said, “the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God,” he is stressing that men have rights from a divine authority which transcends human governments. Returning to Robert Bellah, he states in his 1967 article: The religious dimension in political life as recognized by Kennedy provides a transcendent goal for the political process. This is implied in his final words that “here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.” The whole address can be understood as restating a theme deep in the American tradition: the obligation, both collective and individual, to carry out God’s will on earth. This was the motivating spirit of those who founded America, and it has been present in every generation since. Just below the surface throughout Kennedy’s inaugural address, it becomes explicit in the closing statement that God’s work must be our own. We must learn to see the world through the eyes of God if we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Providing a clear path for America’s youth is dependent of our own clarity of thought.  The role of God’s people in the development of cultures, societies, and governments is not optional. Isaiah promised God’s people a Son upon whose shoulders government would rest.  His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and of the extent of His kingdom and His peace there will be no end. (Isaiah Chapter 2) Governmental involvement is embedded in the DNA of the people of God. _______________________ Thank you all for being a part of the preservation of truth in our Oklahoma culture! Send this newsletter to a friend here LAST MEETING . . . 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