Death of Faith
The Christian Right and Civil Religion
by Stan Moody
It is a practice in the Maine State House of Representatives, of which I have recently been a member, to lead off the morning with a prayer and follow with the Pledge of Allegiance. On its surface, this would seem like a good start to any day.
The prayer is by invitation through the office of the Clerk of the House. If you accept that invitation, you agree to the general terms that, in order to avoid offending those of other faiths or of no faith, you will make your prayer generic.
Most pastors honor that agreement. Often, however, evangelical pastors will come to the rostrum, preach sermons in their prayers, and close the prayer with “...in Jesus' name.” Violation of the terms of the invitation is justified on the grounds that “...He who declares me before men, him will I declare before my Father in Heaven.”
Simply put, there is an assumption that God will not hear a prayer that is not ended in Jesus' name.
That assumption fails the test of experience. When Jesus was instructing His disciples how to pray, He gave them, and us, the Lord's Prayer. Never have I heard the Lord's Prayer ended in Jesus' name. Can we assume that God does not hear the Lord's Prayer?
Are there ways for a Christian pastor to declare allegiance to Christ without violating the terms of the invitation? I believe there are.
One of the ways that I have used was to say at the end of my prayer, “...and may the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer, Amen.” Thus, I have honored the terms of the invitation, have honored the God-given right of my neighbor to reject the Lordship of Christ and have sworn allegiance to the Godhead.
Thirty seconds or so later, we who claim citizenship in the very Kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim, stand and pledge allegiance to a flag.
Go figure.
All this is reflective of a movement by the Christian Right toward a civil religion in America.
Civil religion is nothing less than an identification of the nation of the United States, through a revisionist history of Christian roots, with the covenant people of God. It is the elevation of America to a special role in God's redemptive plan.
It is civil religion that can declare itself as “good” and other nations or political parties as “evil,” a common tactic of the Religious Right. In order to get there, of course, we must codify Christianity into the law as our official religion through carefully selected scriptural mandates to the exclusion of other Christian principles.
The assumption is similar to that of ending prayer in Jesus' name – that God's blessings are reserved only for that nation that exhibits certain trappings of faith.
That is not biblical Christianity.
Biblical Christianity insists that the people of God are not those of a nation-state but are those of every nation, tongue and tribe, who have repented of their sins, have been reconciled to God through the substitutionary death of the risen Christ and have joined in the life of the church.
The story of the settling of the Puritans in America is a story of failure. Its ideological allegiance to the nation-state did not survive the second generation. Out of that failure, however, came the founding principles of the new nation based, not on revealed truth, but on a natural belief in reason, virtue, order and liberty.
The inherent flaw in today's concept of civil religion as advanced by the Christian Right is that it reduces faith to secular evidence. Political institutions become the arbiter of faith through wedge issues incidental to saving grace.
While there can be no argument against Christian principles as a guide to good government, the path to civil religion is strewn with corruption, deceit, cheap religious language and a clergy that shills for the state. Once endorsed, we move from the supremacy of God over nations to an unyielding loyalty to the government. The two lose their distinctive features, and the Christian falls into the idolatry of nation over the Kingdom of God.
The path to civil religion is paved with revisionist history. First, a nation must have been founded as a Christian nation. Secondly, all evil in the past must be denied. Finally, there must be an assumption that, contrary to human history, our nation can be eternal so long as certain precepts are upheld.
America fails and will fail all three.
by Stan Moody
It is a practice in the Maine State House of Representatives, of which I have recently been a member, to lead off the morning with a prayer and follow with the Pledge of Allegiance. On its surface, this would seem like a good start to any day.
The prayer is by invitation through the office of the Clerk of the House. If you accept that invitation, you agree to the general terms that, in order to avoid offending those of other faiths or of no faith, you will make your prayer generic.
Most pastors honor that agreement. Often, however, evangelical pastors will come to the rostrum, preach sermons in their prayers, and close the prayer with “...in Jesus' name.” Violation of the terms of the invitation is justified on the grounds that “...He who declares me before men, him will I declare before my Father in Heaven.”
Simply put, there is an assumption that God will not hear a prayer that is not ended in Jesus' name.
That assumption fails the test of experience. When Jesus was instructing His disciples how to pray, He gave them, and us, the Lord's Prayer. Never have I heard the Lord's Prayer ended in Jesus' name. Can we assume that God does not hear the Lord's Prayer?
Are there ways for a Christian pastor to declare allegiance to Christ without violating the terms of the invitation? I believe there are.
One of the ways that I have used was to say at the end of my prayer, “...and may the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer, Amen.” Thus, I have honored the terms of the invitation, have honored the God-given right of my neighbor to reject the Lordship of Christ and have sworn allegiance to the Godhead.
Thirty seconds or so later, we who claim citizenship in the very Kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim, stand and pledge allegiance to a flag.
Go figure.
All this is reflective of a movement by the Christian Right toward a civil religion in America.
Civil religion is nothing less than an identification of the nation of the United States, through a revisionist history of Christian roots, with the covenant people of God. It is the elevation of America to a special role in God's redemptive plan.
It is civil religion that can declare itself as “good” and other nations or political parties as “evil,” a common tactic of the Religious Right. In order to get there, of course, we must codify Christianity into the law as our official religion through carefully selected scriptural mandates to the exclusion of other Christian principles.
The assumption is similar to that of ending prayer in Jesus' name – that God's blessings are reserved only for that nation that exhibits certain trappings of faith.
That is not biblical Christianity.
Biblical Christianity insists that the people of God are not those of a nation-state but are those of every nation, tongue and tribe, who have repented of their sins, have been reconciled to God through the substitutionary death of the risen Christ and have joined in the life of the church.
The story of the settling of the Puritans in America is a story of failure. Its ideological allegiance to the nation-state did not survive the second generation. Out of that failure, however, came the founding principles of the new nation based, not on revealed truth, but on a natural belief in reason, virtue, order and liberty.
The inherent flaw in today's concept of civil religion as advanced by the Christian Right is that it reduces faith to secular evidence. Political institutions become the arbiter of faith through wedge issues incidental to saving grace.
While there can be no argument against Christian principles as a guide to good government, the path to civil religion is strewn with corruption, deceit, cheap religious language and a clergy that shills for the state. Once endorsed, we move from the supremacy of God over nations to an unyielding loyalty to the government. The two lose their distinctive features, and the Christian falls into the idolatry of nation over the Kingdom of God.
The path to civil religion is paved with revisionist history. First, a nation must have been founded as a Christian nation. Secondly, all evil in the past must be denied. Finally, there must be an assumption that, contrary to human history, our nation can be eternal so long as certain precepts are upheld.
America fails and will fail all three.
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