{"id":1606,"date":"2013-01-22T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html"},"modified":"2013-01-22T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T16:00:00","slug":"presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html","title":{"rendered":"Presidential Inaugurations: Celebration of Civil Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Civil religion is the folk religion of a nation; in the United States, invocation of religion is expected by Americans at events such as the Presidential inauguration, mention of God in political speeches, and of course an example of civil religion can be found on our money, which asserts \u201cIn God We Trust.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0God has been invoked during times of war. \u00a0The New World Encyclopedia says that \u201cIn 1763,\u00a0<\/span>Jean-Jacques Rousseau<\/a>\u00a0coined the term \u201ccivil religion\u201d in his\u00a0<\/span>The Social Contract,<\/i>\u00a0to describe what he regarded as the moral and spiritual foundation essential for any modern society. In the 1950s and 1960s, scholars studied civil religion as a cultural phenomenon, attempting to identify the actual tenets of civil religion in the\u00a0<\/span>United States of America<\/a>, or to study civil religion as a phenomenon of\u00a0<\/span>cultural anthropology<\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Gary Scott Smith says in his op-ed piece of the same title in Penn Live that\u00a0<\/span>civil religion binds the nation:<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThe knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny,\u201d Barack Obama proclaimed in his first inaugural address, \u201cis the source of our confidence.\u201d Obama also accentuated God\u2019s grace and asked Him to bless the United States. In both campaigning for office and as president, Obama has testified to his personal faith. While he strives to represent and serve all Americans\u2014\u201cChristians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers\u201d\u2014as he put in his first inaugural address, he has frequently confessed his \u201cfaith in Jesus Christ as his savior and Lord.\u201d He used religious language and scriptural quotations to comfort families who lost members at Aurora and Newtown.<\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Civil religion is the folk religion of a nation; in the United States, invocation of religion is expected by Americans at events such as the Presidential inauguration, mention of God in political speeches, and of course an example of civil religion can be found on our money, which asserts \u201cIn God We Trust.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0God […]<\/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-1606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPresidential Inaugurations: Celebration of Civil Religion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Civil religion is the folk religion of a nation; in the United States, invocation of religion is expected by Americans at events such as the Presidential\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Presidential Inaugurations: Celebration of Civil Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Civil religion is the folk religion of a nation; in the United States, invocation of religion is expected by Americans at events such as the Presidential\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-22T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andre E. Johnson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html\",\"name\":\"Presidential Inaugurations: Celebration of Civil Religion\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-22T16:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-22T16:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/892ad446aed3fd242a430151516a83fc\"},\"description\":\"Civil religion is the folk religion of a nation; in the United States, invocation of religion is expected by Americans at events such as the Presidential\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Presidential Inaugurations: Celebration of Civil Religion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/\",\"name\":\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/892ad446aed3fd242a430151516a83fc\",\"name\":\"Andre E. Johnson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8740442d3e2978d7a9dd204585be3ed0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8740442d3e2978d7a9dd204585be3ed0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andre E. Johnson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/ajohnson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Presidential Inaugurations: Celebration of Civil Religion","description":"Civil religion is the folk religion of a nation; in the United States, invocation of religion is expected by Americans at events such as the Presidential","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Presidential Inaugurations: Celebration of Civil Religion","og_description":"Civil religion is the folk religion of a nation; in the United States, invocation of religion is expected by Americans at events such as the Presidential","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html","og_site_name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","article_published_time":"2013-01-22T16:00:00+00:00","author":"Andre E. Johnson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andre E. Johnson","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html","name":"Presidential Inaugurations: Celebration of Civil Religion","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-22T16:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-22T16:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/892ad446aed3fd242a430151516a83fc"},"description":"Civil religion is the folk religion of a nation; in the United States, invocation of religion is expected by Americans at events such as the Presidential","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/01\/presidential-inaugurations-celebration-of-civil-religion.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Presidential Inaugurations: Celebration of Civil Religion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/","name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/892ad446aed3fd242a430151516a83fc","name":"Andre E. Johnson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8740442d3e2978d7a9dd204585be3ed0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8740442d3e2978d7a9dd204585be3ed0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Andre E. Johnson"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/ajohnson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}