Civil Religion: One for All, All for One

In recollection of Prof. Robert Bellah, 1927-2013.

Civil Religion in America argues Robert Bellah in his book of the same title, is the faith of the land, not Christianity as some will argue. The civil religion he says exists both independently and along side the other religious organization in America, such as temples, churches and mosques.

Taking up this as his topic, Bellah says that while the founding fathers may have advocated for religion, they in their enlightened minds, argued for no religion in particular; up sprung what today we call the civil religion. Over time the amalgamated beliefs of many faith communities have coalesced into this one great mass that here in America, the religion of our intrinsically religious society is not any particular religion at all, but the civil religion that suits so many.
In defining civil religion, Bellah describes a situation that goes beyond folk ways but does not extend itself to established or 'mainline' faith groups. Often the leaders of civil religion inhabit political spheres and engage religion to advance message. These messages may or may not be in keeping with the founding ideals of the American nation; when they are not, often there tends to be political in-fighting, bickering among civic groups or political entities for a "share in the marketplace" of ideas, a phrase that Frenchman De Tocqueville who was an early advocate for enlightened, American ideals, surely would have detested.

Democracy, Communism and Fascism

"The social aspirations of man cannot attain full originality and full value, except in a society which respects man's personal integrity." --Building the Earth by Teilhard de Chardin

Returning to the topic of religion and politics, we turn to the modernist ideas of democracy, communism and fascism. For those who doubt that religion, or even less spirituality, has a place with politics, permit here a simple enumeration: from the earliest religious history, politics demonstrates its part in the religious and spiritual milieu of mankind. As was common in the ancient world, the king or ruler of a tribe or nation had the "divine right" to determine, institute and force religious beliefs upon a population. They did this often, enforcing a state religion.

The Greeks and Romans, along with other Orientals, formed religions and spiritualities which predictably led to establishment of moralities for any of these given cultural groups. This practice continues with the moderns (1200-1800 in the common era), who as Kings and emperors forced their judeo-christian beliefs upon the population; indeed their kingship made them the heads of those faiths. In other words, the king was the state-church, so the church was represented in the body of the king.

It was this against which Machiavelli protested.

The Khalifs of the mid-east, Africa and other places arose to form what is now called Islam. They ruled in places by persuasion and by force; the United States of America was formed in part to protest against the state religion which during the colonial period was constituted by the King of England (King George III and others); today in the 20 and 21st centuries, there have been and will likely continue, governments which attempt to control, even police the population through forced religion.

Indeed we learn of places around the globe where Islam is practiced by regimes in an oppressive manner; the 14th Dalai Lama has been forced from his native Tibet into exile through religious actions taken against the Buddhists whom he leads. It seems the Chinese government wishes to direct and control his faith and others as well. Then there are the Sikhs in India, in opposition to the Hindus. They have, like many others, sought their own lands to live and practice their faith freely. The Jewish faith cannot be overlooked. It is in the arbitrary political formation of the modern state of Israel which has cast conflict upon previously settled territories.

And just now, today, in the United States the cry goes out for the practice of religion, freely or even not at all. The civil religion of the State wishes to suppose that it can most easily supplant the free will of the people and their freely chosen faiths for a legislated, legalistic spirituality and belief system. Today we are mired in conflict regarding forced participation in health care initiatives. The legislation which possibly thwarts the US Constitution, has made its way to the US Supreme court, the highest and final authority, asking to determine if Americans can and do have the liberty to practice their faith freely and the resulting morality they derive from it.

Many in this nation believe that government is dictating their moral stance in regard to health care. Many Americans who do not follow the state instituted Civil Religion represented in the law wish to practice a faith of their own free will and to determine what, if anything this should be; that the civil religion of the American state not be forced upon them.

It is these ideas and others, as such contained within democracy, communism and fascism against which many struggle from the bounds of religion and government.

Religion of American Enlightenment

"In the French Revolution, religion was scarcely less an issue than politics, a fact which was bewildering to American admirers of French liberty."--Religion of the American Enlightenment by G.A. Koch

The American liberal thinker of the 18th and 19th centuries, while able to behave as a Republican in political matters, found himself (keep in mind that only males of age and land owning could vote in this period) unable to wholly accept the radical terms of the 'new religion' of that "great and glorious sister republic," France. John Trumbull of Connecticut commented that "still worse than the beheading [of King Louis XVI] was when the National Assembly [Assemblee Nationale francais, roughly equal to the British parliament, or the US Congress] formed a procession to the church of Notre Dame, Paris, and in mock solemnity bowed to the graces of a common courtesan, basely worshiping her as 'a goddess of reason.' Yet not a few in America threw up their hands crying out to the glorious sister republic."

American patriots revolted at the events of that 'sister republic,' France, who had likewise shucked off her monarch; they were, meanwhile, repugnant at the resulting "religious implications of Revolutionary thought, quickly submerged into 'freethinking," writes G.Adolf Koch in his book, Religion of the American Enlightenment. The Founding Fathers, as they are often called, those men who hammered out the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they who demanded liberty from the king of England, and which war resulted in the triumph of the new United States of America, those individuals are often called the Founders, or Founding Fathers, of the nation that is the United States of America.

While not having directly to do with the religions of the world, American Enlightenment has exerted a profound impact around the world, altering the perceptions and religious practices everywhere. In a large measure, other nations today fight against "American Imperialism"; that imperialism necessarily includes our religious ideas and expressions. Many who engage in the various forms of American Enlightenment do so without the slightest cognizance that they, too, directly or indirectly practice this same sort of Imperialism through their behavior and actions. Those are actions which they then take around the world, part of a natural flow of ideas.

"I limit my scope to deism as a religious cult," writes Koch. Men such as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Elihu Palmer and many others were closely involved in the practices of Deism. Thomas Paine, author of The Age of Reason, was an active member of the Deistic Society of New York. Deism and corresponding societies popped up throughout the new nation.

Eschewing traditional religious assemblies, Deists, nevertheless, met regularly; ultimately these meetings resulted in the formation of churches, one which came to be known as the Unitarian/Universalist Church of America. The Philadelphia Deist Society closely associated with the New York Society. In contrast to the 'Kentucky Deists', those living west of the Alleghenies, the New England Deists engaged in a far more extensive re-purposing and a re-configuring manner of Reasoning. It was "militant... The movement to establish meeting houses, services, and other attributes of a religious institution is not synonymous with the religious liberalism of Benjamin Franklin," who was deeply influenced by French thought.

Deism in the second half of the 18th century was characterized by a scepticism "among the upper classes... it did not preclude affiliation with Christian denominations, but did tend to cool religious ardor. Deistic influences broke down the distinctions between one's own true religion and all other 'false' religions. Deists view the deity as 'author of the universe,' their belief is in immortality, but not salvation. Natural religion is more important than revelation... It is an attitude of mind, rather than a specific creed."

Thus as American Republicanism took hold, correspondingly the Enlightenment which spawned it in a public, political sphere spawned a private, individual, creed adverse, spiritual rather than religious mind that entered forcefully into a world of burgeoning scientific reasoning. In this same time period interestingly, the 'Industrial Revolution' is inaugurated; here some argued that man was to become one with the machine, that his life came to be ruled by the clock, the growing merchant class, the industrialists, the capitalists, the profiteers and the resulting ills of it all coalescing into a modern government, a modern political process and retaining all the spiritual ills of mankind.

Others argue the opposite. That Rational thought, Deism has in fact freed men for the constraints of foolish superstition; that men live better, longer lives due to science and advances of technology. They are healthier and more profitable than ever before with more opportunities, time and leisure to assist the world in the struggle for the same. The Deists remarks Koch, "were not theologians... they were common men, had much in common with the average American, past and present."
Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' are gifts which men are endowed by their Creator," who is also called 'Nature's God'. These basic, religious principles of the American Enlightenment have over the centuries constituted an acceptable religious foundation that all Americans can share." Today it has been vogue to call this the 'Civil Religion'.
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