Saturday, November 06, 2004
The Christian and Civic Religion
In the United States the largest and loudest body of support for two of our strongest forms of civic religion, the mentioning of God in our pledge and on our money, has come from Evangelical Christians. What a friend of mine was shocked to run into another Christian who did not support these two articles of ?faith,? she was shocked. But should she be?
Let me state up front that I personally have no problem with either item. Then again, I do not feel passionate about protecting either item, at least not in and of themselves. What I will attempt to do here in a short few paragraphs, is state the case for both why and why not these two ?God? items should be kept.
The arguments for
There are two main arguments for the continued inclusion of these two items. The first of these is that they are essentially true. Christians believes in God?s sovereignty and that He alone is sustainer of the universe (even if he does so through the nature laws of physics). So, when we say that we are one nation under God, we are stating the reality that no nation can long stand when it lives in direct disobedience to God or when God has determined, in His divine judgment, to pull a nation down. Over the four thousand years of recorded human history we have seen great nations and empires rise and fall on a fairly regular basis, including Israel and Judah. A cursory reading the scriptures easily supports the idea that nations fall when the rebel against God, when they trust in their own strength, and when they rebel against God?s holy ways. The Old Testament in particular is as hard on non-covenant nations as it is on Israel/Judah, foretelling of the fall of the minor kingdoms around Palestine and the doom of the great empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and others, all for their failings before God. By stating day by day in the Pledge or in the spending of our money we hope to instill not just the words but the realization that we are not a nation unto ourselves.
The second reason to oppose the removal of these two items is that to do so would to create the appearance that our nation is a secular nation. The implications here are broader than just the religious, because it would mean that the state and the state alone is the giver of right (and therefore can abolish them) and the foundation of our way of life. Clearly this sets a bad precedent, as no nation that is completely secular has demonstrated its ability to create either a sustained society for free peoples.
The arguments for:
There are several arguemetns against the continued use of the ?God? in the pledge and on the money, beyond the Constitutional question of the so-called separation principle.
First, there is the question of the generic god. As a Christian I know there is only one God, the maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1). The god of the pledge and the money may or may not be that God. Because the term is so generic and because it is left to the speaker and user to determine, we are actively encouraging a form of idolatry (see Appendix for the multiple concepts of idolatry in the scriptures). Unless we can define the god of the pledge/money as the Triune God revealed in Jesus Christ, we should not continue to use them.
Second, the use of these terms appears to be a tacit statement of God?s approval for our actions as a nation. This is a very dangerous action, as it does give rise to a type of nationalism that is rooted in the divine mandate from heaven. If we are ?god?s nation,? then action we take will be inherently just, right, and proper.
Third, and related to the previous, is that it is actually a creed of a civic religion, not of a biblical one. The holy books of the god of the pledge/money is not the Bible where we meet Yahweh the redeemer, the holy God. Instead the holy books of civic religion, The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and others are ones where we meet a god (if He is there at all) who is the munificent creator who gives rights and hope, but who is not the holy one of the Bible who continues to work in creation. When most Americans say that they believe in god, they mean the god of the Declaration, not of Exodus, the Incarnation and Revelation. The true religious faith of most Americans is a civic religion of Americanism. This religion, while it has a lot of good points, ultimately is a shallow copy of the biblical faith connected with the person of Jesus Christ.
There are clearly good reasons (and there are likely many more) to both support and reject the continued use of God in the pledge/money. Before we quickly either affirm or reject it, we should prayerfully reflect on what the Triune God of the Bible would have us do, as we live out our dual citizenship of the Kingdom of God and America the beautiful.
Appendix: What do we mean by idolatry?
There are really three types of idolatry seen in the Bible. The first is the active worship of false idols. This is the old fashioned idol of carving an image and then bowing down to it. The classic text for this is Aaron?s making of the Gold Calf in the desert. This is a relatively rare occurrence in the Old Testament, though it is instructive that the practice of worshipping items made by human hands continues in the world today, both in other world religions and in the day-to-day life of many people whose God ?is their stomach.?
The second type of idolatry in the Bible is that of worshipping the name ?Yahweh? but doing it in ways that are associated with the false gods of Israel?s neighbors. This is what we see when the Israelites begin to worship Yahweh (in name only) but do so by engaging in 1) temple prostitution and sexual orgies (Hosea 4:14) 2) offering child sacrifices (Ezek 23:37) and 3) by setting up ?high places? (1 Kings 12:31) right outside their house (an act of control on God). This type of idolatry is particularly insidious because the name ?Yahweh? is being used in worship that God has disavowed.
The third type of idolatry is much more difficult to notice. It occurs when people are worshipping Yahweh ? in His name ? in the right ways ? by offering sacrifices, by singing praise psalms, by going to the Temple, by attending to all the right ordinances. Everything looks good ? but that is the key ? looks can be deceiving. Instead of worshiping?which the Yahweh has put very clearly as ?Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength??these are people who simply going through the motions. There is no repentance in their hearts. They continue to oppress the poor (which we will talk about next week) in order to make more and more money. They assume that Yahweh is a powerful God who must be ?bought off? by acts of worship in order to keep Him on their side. They are keeping the call to true worship with their actions ? but not with their being. This subtle form of idolatry is one of the particularly important points of discussion throughout the Minor Prophets.
