The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture by Darrel Ray Read Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Darrel Ray
republic. Robert Bellah (1967) described it in his ground–breaking work, Civil Religion in America:
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. 6
The civil religion is a deeply embedded myth that has existed as a meta-religion since the nation’s beginning. Not tied to any one doctrine, this nebulous belief system is loosely based on the Judeo-Christian tradition, with claims that a god has blessed this nation and is a guiding force in its destiny.
“What have been Christianity’s fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.”
-James Madison, 4 th U.S. President
Manifest destiny was a central theme of the civil religion through the early 1800s and was used to justify the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) as well as the displacement of Native American tribes and expansion across the continent.
John O’Sullivan’s famous 1839 essay captured the concept for the whole nation at the time:
All this will be our future history, to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man – the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this blessed mission to the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth, has America been chosen; and her high example shall smite unto death the tyranny of kings, hierarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the glad tidings of peace and good will where myriadsnow endure an existence scarcely more enviable than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity? 7
----
6 Robert Bellah, Civil Religion in America, Daedalus (1967), 96,1, pp. 1-21.
Lincoln used the civil religion expertly to guide the nation through the Civil War, setting the standard for its use among politicians. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr., used it as a vehicle for the Civil Rights Movement, Governor George Wallace used it as justification for segregation in the South. While it may seem ironic that both men could use the civil religion for such opposing purposes, that is the nebulous nature of this myth. Wallace believed “states rights” were god-given, just as King felt racial equality was. Both ideas have held sway in the civil religion at various times.
The civil religion is as viral as any religion. Recall how any religion disables the critical thinking areas of the brain in its followers with respect to their own religion. They can see the irrationality of others’ religious beliefs but are blind to their own. The civil religion has a similar ability to dull the critical thinking skills of entire groups so that criticism of the nation is tantamount to blasphemy. For example, those who criticized the Vietnam War were told, “America, love it or leave it” by some of the most religious people and leaders. More recently, many a minister preached a thinly veiled sermon in support of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Others called those who dared to speak out against the invasion unpatriotic. War and religion usually go hand in hand into battle. Here are the words of Bob Jones, the fundamentalist President of Bob Jones University, on Larry King Live, March 11, 2003,
‘The motto of the Confederacy was Deo Vindice, or “God on Our Side.” Atlanta was burned to ashes by people who thought that the deity took the other view.’
-Christopher Hitchens
And the war in Iraq will help to do a lot to address the source of a lot of this terrorism. And I don’t see how anybody who loves peace could really
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. 6
The civil religion is a deeply embedded myth that has existed as a meta-religion since the nation’s beginning. Not tied to any one doctrine, this nebulous belief system is loosely based on the Judeo-Christian tradition, with claims that a god has blessed this nation and is a guiding force in its destiny.
“What have been Christianity’s fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.”
-James Madison, 4 th U.S. President
Manifest destiny was a central theme of the civil religion through the early 1800s and was used to justify the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) as well as the displacement of Native American tribes and expansion across the continent.
John O’Sullivan’s famous 1839 essay captured the concept for the whole nation at the time:
All this will be our future history, to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man – the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this blessed mission to the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth, has America been chosen; and her high example shall smite unto death the tyranny of kings, hierarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the glad tidings of peace and good will where myriadsnow endure an existence scarcely more enviable than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity? 7
----
6 Robert Bellah, Civil Religion in America, Daedalus (1967), 96,1, pp. 1-21.
Lincoln used the civil religion expertly to guide the nation through the Civil War, setting the standard for its use among politicians. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr., used it as a vehicle for the Civil Rights Movement, Governor George Wallace used it as justification for segregation in the South. While it may seem ironic that both men could use the civil religion for such opposing purposes, that is the nebulous nature of this myth. Wallace believed “states rights” were god-given, just as King felt racial equality was. Both ideas have held sway in the civil religion at various times.
The civil religion is as viral as any religion. Recall how any religion disables the critical thinking areas of the brain in its followers with respect to their own religion. They can see the irrationality of others’ religious beliefs but are blind to their own. The civil religion has a similar ability to dull the critical thinking skills of entire groups so that criticism of the nation is tantamount to blasphemy. For example, those who criticized the Vietnam War were told, “America, love it or leave it” by some of the most religious people and leaders. More recently, many a minister preached a thinly veiled sermon in support of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Others called those who dared to speak out against the invasion unpatriotic. War and religion usually go hand in hand into battle. Here are the words of Bob Jones, the fundamentalist President of Bob Jones University, on Larry King Live, March 11, 2003,
‘The motto of the Confederacy was Deo Vindice, or “God on Our Side.” Atlanta was burned to ashes by people who thought that the deity took the other view.’
-Christopher Hitchens
And the war in Iraq will help to do a lot to address the source of a lot of this terrorism. And I don’t see how anybody who loves peace could really
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