American Revolution The
American Revolution is the main source of civil religion. The book
Sons of the Fathers: The Civil Religion of the American Revolution says it produced these religious properties: a
Moses-like leader in
George Washington; prophets such as
Thomas Jefferson and
Thomas Paine; apostles such as
John Adams and
Benjamin Franklin; martyrs such as those who perished in the
Boston Massacre and in
Nathan Hale; devils such as
Benedict Arnold and
Hessian "mercenaries"; sacred places such as
Independence Hall and
Valley Forge; rituals such as raising the
Liberty Pole; symbols such as the
Betsy Ross flag; sacred holidays such as
Independence Day; and a holy scripture based on the
Declaration of Independence,
Constitution, and the
Bill of Rights.
Ceremonies in the early Republic The leaders of the
Federalist Party were conscious of the need to boost voter identification with their party. Elections remained of central importance but for the rest of the political year, celebrations, parades, festivals, and visual
sensationalism were used. They employed multiple festivities, exciting parades, and even quasi-religious pilgrimages and "sacred" days that became incorporated into the American civil religion. George Washington was always its hero, and after his death he became a sort of
demigod looking down from heaven to instill his blessings on the nation. At first the Federalists focused on commemoration of the ratification of the Constitution; they organized parades to demonstrate widespread popular support for the new Federalist Party. The parade organizers incorporated secular versions of traditional religious themes and rituals, thereby fostering a highly visible celebration of the nation's new civil religion. The Fourth of July has been a semi-sacred day since then. Its celebration in Boston proclaimed national over local patriotism, and included orations, dinners,
militia musters, parades, marching bands, floats, and fireworks. By 1800, the Fourth was closely identified with the Federalist party. Republicans were annoyed, and staged their own celebrations on the Fourth—with rival parades sometimes clashing with each other. That generated even more excitement and larger crowds. After the collapse of the Federalists starting in 1815, the Fourth became a nonpartisan holiday.
President as religious leader Since George Washington, presidents have assumed various roles in American civil religion, which has shaped the presidency. Linder argues that:
Charles W. Calhoun argues that in the 1880s, the speeches of
Benjamin Harrison display a rhetorical style that embraced American civic religion; indeed, Harrison was one of the credo's most adept presidential practitioners. Harrison was a leader whose application of Christian ethics to social and economic matters paved the way for the
Social Gospel, the
Progressive Movement, and a national climate of acceptance regarding government action to resolve social problems. Linder argues that President Bill Clinton's sense of civil religion was based on his
Baptist background in
Arkansas. Commentator
William Safire noted of the 1992 presidential campaign that "Never has the name of God been so frequently invoked, and never has this or any nation been so thoroughly and systematically blessed." Clinton's speeches incorporated religious terminology that suggests the role of pastor rather than prophet or priest. With a universalistic outlook, he made no sharp distinction between the domestic and the foreign in presenting his vision of a world community of civil faith. Hammer says that in his 2008 campaign speeches candidate
Barack Obama portrays the American nation as a people unified by a shared belief in the
American Creed and sanctified by the symbolism of an American civil religion. Would-be presidents likewise contributed to the rhetorical history of civil religion. The speeches of
Daniel Webster were often memorized by student debaters, and his 1830 endorsement of "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable" was iconic.
Symbolism of the American flag According to Adam Goodheart, the modern meaning of the
American flag, and the reverence of many Americans towards it, was forged by Major
Robert Anderson's fight in defense of the flag at the
Battle of Fort Sumter, which opened the
American Civil War in April 1861. During the war the flag was used throughout the Union to symbolize American nationalism and rejection of secessionism. Goodheart explains the flag was transformed into a sacred symbol of patriotism:
Soldiers and veterans An important dimension is the role of the soldiers, ready to sacrifice their lives to preserve the nation. They are memorialized in many monuments and semi-sacred days, such as
Veterans Day and
Memorial Day. Historian Jonathan Ebel argues that the "soldier-savior" is a sort of Messiah, who embodies the synthesis of civil religion, and the Christian ideals of sacrifice and redemption. In Europe, there are numerous cemeteries exclusively for American soldiers who fought in world wars. They have become American sacred spaces. Pacifists have made some sharp criticisms. For example, Kelly Denton-Borhaug, writing from the
Moravian peace tradition, argues that the theme of "sacrifice" has fueled the rise of what she calls "U.S. war culture". The result is a diversion of attention from what she considers the militarism and the immoral, oppressive, sometimes barbaric conduct in the global American war on terror.
Pledge of Allegiance Kao and Copulsky argue the concept of civil religion illuminates the popular constitutional debate over the
Pledge of Allegiance. The function of the pledge has four aspects: preservationist, pluralist, priestly, and prophetic. The debate is not between those who believe in God and those who do not, but it is a dispute on the meaning and place of civil religion in America. Cloud explores political oaths since 1787 and traces the tension between a need for national unity and a desire to affirm religious faith. He reviews major
Supreme Court decisions involving the Pledge of Allegiance, including the contradictory
Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940) and
West Virginia v. Barnette (1943) decisions. He argues that the Pledge was changed in 1954 during the Cold War to encourage school children to reject communism's atheistic philosophy by affirming belief in God.
School rituals Bellah wrote that "The public school system serves as a particularly important context for the cultic celebration of the civil rituals."
Ethnic minorities The Bellah argument deals with mainstream beliefs, but other scholars have looked at minorities outside the mainstream, and typically distrusted or disparaged by the mainstream, which have developed their own version of U.S. civil religion.
White Southerners Wilson, noting the historic centrality of religion in
Southern identity, argues that when the
White South was kept out of the national mainstream in the late 19th century, it created its own pervasive common civil religion heavy with mythology, ritual, and organization. Wilson asserts the "
Lost Cause"—that is, defeat in a holy war—has left some southerners to face guilt, doubt, and the triumph of what they perceive as evil: in other words, to form a tragic sense of life.
Black and African Americans Woodrum and Bell argue that
black people demonstrate less civil religiosity than
white people and that different predictors of civil religion operate among black and white people. For example, conventional religion positively influences white people's civil religion but negatively influences black people's civil religion. Woodrum and Bell interpret these results as a product of black American religious ethnogenesis and separatism. In addition, as
Frederick Douglass described in his "
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" speech in 1852, civil religion may be more complicated for Black Americans: "The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." Other scholars have argued that Black Americans did not simply exhibit lower civil religiosity, but developed a distinct alternative civil religious tradition rooted in biblical narrative rather than the founding documents. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., in
Exodus!: Religion, Race, and Nation in Early Nineteenth-Century Black America, argues that the biblical Exodus narrative provided Black Americans with a counter-mythology to the dominant civil religious framework. Whereas mainstream American civil religion identified the United States with the biblical promised land, many Black Americans in the early nineteenth century drew on the Exodus story to cast America in the role of Egypt — a land of bondage — and themselves in the role of the Israelites seeking liberation. Glaude traces this tradition through the Black church and the National Negro Convention movement of the 1830s and 1840s, arguing that it constituted a distinct civil religious tradition grounded in the experience of slavery and discrimination, rather than in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution .
Japanese Americans Iwamura argues that the pilgrimages made by
Japanese Americans to the sites of World War II-era
internment camps have formed a Japanese American version of civil religion. Starting in 1969 the Reverend Sentoku Maeda and Reverend Soichi Wakahiro began pilgrimages to
Manzanar National Historic Site in California. These pilgrimages included poetry readings, music, cultural events, a roll call of former internees, and a nondenominational ceremony with Protestant and
Buddhist ministers and Catholic and
Shinto priests. The event is designed to reinforce Japanese American cultural ties and to ensure that such injustices will never occur again.
Hispanic and Latino Americans Mexican-American labor leader
César Chávez, by virtue of having holidays, stamps, and other commemorations of his actions, has practically become a "saint" in American civil religion, according to León. He was raised in the Catholic tradition and used Catholic rhetoric. His "sacred acts", his political practices couched in Christian teachings, became influential to the burgeoning Chicano movement and strengthened his appeal. By acting on his moral convictions through nonviolent means, Chávez became sanctified in the national consciousness, says León. ==Enshrined texts==