The nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3)
Foundation for American Communications (FACs, pronounced "facts") works towards better journalism through education. (By the way, many bloggers might be interested in checking out their
Journalist education programs) Out of their program
"Journalism, Religion and Public Life", comes the following offering:
Civil Religion in America that makes the point Civil Religion (Not Christianity per se) is America's Religion. More below the fold...
Now please understand that we're
not saying here that American Civil Religion is right or wrong or good or bad. We're merely observing that
the predominant religion of America is not "Christian" but rather this peculiar "American Civil Religion".
I. AMERICA NOT A "CHRISTIAN NATION"
Of course America is not a "Christian Nation". Never has been, never will be. How is it even conceivable that a government could somehow be induced to become disciples of Jesus (ie. Christian)? Its not possible -- that would be an oxymoron.
There is not now, nor will there ever be in the history of the planet a "Christian nation." Jesus specifically said "I am not an earthly king..."John 18:36 (New Living Translation)
Jesus forever declared the separation of the governmental realm and the spiritual realm when he said "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." Matthew 22:21 (King James Version)
There is no "theocracy", priestogarchy, or "theonomy" that Jesus could ever be in favor of in terms of someone else reigning "in Jesus name". That would be entirely inconsistent with Jesus' above statements.
The idea that any human could govern "in Jesus name" is much closer to extremist Totalitarian ideology like Fascism, Nazism or Communism than it is to Christianity.
It should be noted that orthodox Christians believe that Jesus will return one day and will reign in person. In that event that truly would qualify as God reigning on earth and truly fit the definition for Theocracy. Other than that it would appear as though Jesus has not authorized anyone to reign "in his name" as the Dominionists and Reconstructionists urge.
II. AMERICA'S CIVIL RELIGION
Here's some great stuff about the American Civil Religion from FACs: we've added the bolding to bring out the main points.
Civil Religion in America
The FACSNET section on American civil religion is divided into 17 sub-parts on four Web pages:
Forward
Since we first posted our article on American civil religion in October, 2002, it has become among the most demanded pages on FACSNET and has consistently remained in the "Top 10" most visited pages on the site. In addition, this page is now the number 1 listing on Google for the keywords, "civil religion."
[snip]
Civil religion is an often unstudied and unacknowledged topic. Like many things that are ignored, omitted or hidden, it has a way of being found; and once it is discovered, the floodgates open. Apparently, this has been the case for the many readers who are drawn to this topic.
[snip]
This study attempts to explain the American ethos, in terms of civil religion, for both Americans and non-Americans alike -- journalists in particular. (We receive frequent inquires from Europeans regarding this piece.)
As well as being the most powerful country, the United States is the most diverse country in the world -- religiously, ethnically and otherwise. Americans are not defined by race, tribe or religion.
[snip]
...Some call it civil religion; some explain it in the terms of a "social contract"; some call it a "creed"; others say there's no such thing as any of it.
This piece attempts to show American civil religion for what it is, regardless of what it's called, in its many contours. Civil religion is more easily understood though its direct expression than a dictionary-type definition. Throughout this piece, we attempt to reveal the meaning of civil religion primarily through the words of Americans as they speak -- on issues ranging from war, culture, diversity to church and state.
And what is the nature of this American Civil Religion? Again this post is not advocating the American Civil Religion, it is merely observing that there is such a thing and that it, not Christianity is America's predominant religion.
The Nature of American civil religion
"What we have, from the earliest years of the republic, is a collection of beliefs, symbols and rituals with respect to sacred things and institutionalized in a collectivity ... American civil religion has its own prophets and its own martyrs, its own sacred events and sacred places, its own solemn rituals and symbols. It is concerned that America be a society as perfectly in accord with the will of God as men can make it, and a light to all the nations." - Robert Bellah, "Civil Religion in America," 1967</font>
Civil religion goes by many different monikers: civic faith, public piety, republican religion (small "r"). Benjamin Franklin called it "public religion"; Abraham Lincoln called it "political religion." Like its different names, civil religion has many variations in its expression and definition. Sometimes it is defined right out of existence.
Sherrill defines it this way:
"American civil religion is a form of devotion, outlook and commitment that deeply and widely binds the citizens of the nation together with ideas they possess and express about the sacred nature, the sacred ideals, the sacred character, and sacred meanings of their country."
American civil religion binds the national conception with sacred meaning and purpose. From the early years of the republic to the present, Americans have viewed their country in religious terms, Sherrill said.
"There is a religious aura and coloration in the ways many Americans think about, live within and operate in relation to their ideas of their country as sacred entity," he said. "People believe the country has been specially blessed by God, and that means they, the Americans, have been blessed. America and Americans, therefore, have a special place and role in the world and in human history."
[snip]
Alexis De Tocqueville, the great 19th century political scientist, described what he observed in America as a "republican religion":
"In the United States even the religion of most of the citizens is republican, since it submits the truths of the other world to private judgment, as in politics the care of their temporal interests is abandoned to the good sense of the people. Thus every man is allowed freely to take that road which he thinks will lead him to heaven, just as the law permits every citizen to have the right of choosing his own government,"
he wrote in
"Democracy in America" (Book I, Chapter XVIII).
De Tocqueville observed that the United States had achieved a unique balance between religion and government, whereby the two were disconnected in the Constitution but connected in a broader level through "the prevailing habits and ideas of the people."
"These partisans of liberty [Americans] know that liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith," he wrote. "That Providence has given to every human being the degree of reason necessary to direct himself in the affairs that interest him exclusively is the grand maxim upon which civil and political society rests in the United States."
For more on the details of the American Civil Religion we recommend people go to the excellent FACS report Civil Religion in America and read it in depth.