{"id":1333,"date":"2013-07-13T17:46:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T17:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/american-civil-religion.html"},"modified":"2013-07-13T17:46:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T17:46:00","slug":"american-civil-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/american-civil-religion.html","title":{"rendered":"American Civil Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
I recently finished reading\u00a0The Faith Instinct\u00a0<\/em>by Nicholas Wade. In one of the book\u2019s concluding chapters Wade writes about\u00a0American Civil Religion<\/a><\/em>, the idea that the history and symbols of the United States have resulted in a sort of pseudo-state religion. The theory is not Wade\u2019s, but it was the first time I had come across it (my history reading over the last fifteen years has been mostly limited to the Pagan\/Magickal\/Occult sphere).<\/span><\/div>\n
Over the last few years the practice of American Civil Religion has become more and more pronounced. Many conservatives seem to see The Constitution as a near-religious document, second only to The Bible in terms of importance. While the whole point of the Constitution was that it could be changed and reinterpreted by succeeding generations, every line is now looked at as holy writ (at least when it\u2019s convenient, no one talks much about counting some human beings as 3\/5ths of a person), never mind that the Founding Fathers could not have imagined semi-automatic weapons or a healthcare system without leeches. In this way the Constitution is very much like The Bible, people pick and choose the things they want out of it, and ignore the parts that might stand in disagreement to their own positions (like the line \u201cA well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State\u201d in the Second Amendment).<\/span><\/div>\n
The Constitution is not the only \u201cscripture\u201d at the heart of American Civil Religion. There are several other documents and speeches that carry nearly as much weight. The most obvious of those other scriptures is the Declaration of Independence. Containing the rhetorical flourishes of Jefferson and Franklin the Declaration is not just a letter proclaiming American independence, but a document outlining the rights and hopes of the American people (or at least white male landowners back in 1776).<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently finished reading\u00a0The Faith Instinct\u00a0by Nicholas Wade. In one of the book\u2019s concluding chapters Wade writes about\u00a0American Civil Religion, the idea that the history and symbols of the United States have resulted in a sort of pseudo-state religion. The theory is not Wade\u2019s, but it was the first time I had come across it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Civil Religion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I recently finished reading The Faith Instinct by Nicholas Wade. 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