Overheard 3

John Mark Reynolds, at the WaPo discussion, weighs in on civil religion with an opener with quoting and recalling…

Civil religion may be one of the few things less popular than Glenn Beck at Harvard. Two psychological conditions account for most of this fear and loathing. A combination of theophobia–the irrational fear of all things religious–and political dextrophobia–an unhealthy worry about the right side of the body politic–runs unchecked in the blood stream of such schools, disabling the open-mindedness normally prized.

And then this…

What good is civil religion?

Civil religion will not save anyone from damnation in the next life, but it allows the damned and the saved to work together in this life. Civil religion is the minimum claim that my allegiance to the United States of America is under God. Civil religion limits the domain of the state to one area of my life. Washington is not my lord.

I am a participant, not a communicant, in the civil religion.

The American civil religion allows all the great monotheistic faiths to agree to disagree on the vital details of religion. Those important, indeed most vital, questions are left to the family, private society, and religious organizations.