America's Civic Religion and Religious Pluralism

It was hot in Philadelphia.

After all it was July. 
The delegates gathered from up and down the Atlantic Coast
from Savannah in the South
to Portsmouth in the North.

The previous April the shooting had begun in Lexington,
sending a scare through the militias as far South as Connecticut,
and as far North as New Hampshire,
contingents had rallied that afternoon in Concord
some ten miles from Lexington
and turned the Imperial Army back
causing a disorder retreat to Boston.

Soon New England's militias encircled the British in Boston,
with militias marching up from the Middle colonies,
by May of 1775 Congress had dispatched
a Virginian to command that mess of militias,
which Congress with more hope
than accuracy called the Continental Army.

When the  delegates gathered in Philadelphia in July 1776
the revolution was a year old,
and had sunk deeply into the villages of the 13 states.

Thomas Paine's Common Sense had been published
and he had argued for a complete break with the Empire,
and the majority of people agreed.

John Adams surveying the souls of his people  offered this insight,
The Revolution was won in the hearts and souls of the people,
long before the first shots were fired.

It was farmers, and artisans, merchants and laborers
who were convicted of a vision of freedom,
who knew a myth of an ancient anglo-saxon democracy,
where people collaborated to create community,
and were willing to resort to armed struggle to achieve their dream
who sent the delegates to Philadelphia.

Most of those who gathered in  Philadelphia had a mandate,
determined in mass meetings of those who elected them.

tell King George the 3rd that he had killed our people,
and he is no longer our king.

tell him we have taken responsibility for own fates
and we will defend our country from him and his troops.

These are people who had been loyal subjects of the English king,
not ten years before,

who had begun their struggle fighting for the rights of Englishmen,
and who were now demanding casting off that identity,   
and assuming a new one.


If I were a student of religion,
which I am,

I might note that these people had rejected one mythos,

and committed themselves another.
that they had experienced a mass conversion experience,
a spiritual revolution.

and this process was well under way before Concord and Lexington,
before the Battle for Boston,
before the Continental Congress gathered in July 1776,

The Congress
elected a committee to draft a declaration expressing their sentiments.

JOHN ADAMS - FROM MASSACHUSETTS
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FROM PENNSYLVANIA,
THOMAS JEFFERSON FROM VIRGINIA.



All three were deeply religious men,
that is they were concerned with ultimate questions,
profound moral questions,

but all three were highly critical of the prevailing orthodoxy
they were religious liberals,
and all would later associate themselves with Unitarian ideas,

but, alas all three died before there was a Unitarian denomination,
Adams lived to see his congregation call itself Unitarian.

for our purposes let us call them religious liberals,
spiritual ancestors,
and let us agree that majority of the delegates were likewise.

Some among us have heard the word deist applied to these men,
the term is inadequate,
if it implies that their idea of God was only to set the Universe in motion,
and then to let it work by natural law.



Deists, or Natural Theologians as they called themselves
believed that God and nature were not in contradiction,
and we could understand God by examining nature,

they believed their God inspired human beings to ethical living,

and that Jesus was a teacher of ethical living.

and that God worked in history to bring forth freedom and justice.

Jefferson was serious when he drafted the words,
all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights
among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

We don't invent rights, the state does not grant rights,
we don't contract with each other for rights,
for Jefferson rights to freedom and self fulfillment,
to community and to living our lives
were inherent in us as human beings,
given to us by God.


Adams was serious when he wrote in his journal that God had led the delegates
to the decision to begin the new journey for freedom.
He was opposed to orthodoxy and authoritarianism in church and state,
precisely because he believed
that God was the source of freedom and personal responsibility.

Franklin was serious when he wrote that salvation
did not arise from thinking approved thoughts,
but from living according to the divine plan,
which was known by using our God given brains,
and conscience.

And the draft of the Declaration of Independence
written by Jefferson after conversation in committee,
and presented to the delegates after tweaking by Adams and Franklin.
reflects their orientation.

What united the delegates was what students of religion call a civic religion.

Societies are held together by myths, by stories of founding heros,
by celebration of holidays where great events are celebrated,
and deep in our national consciousness we have shared a civic religion.

We profess as a nation that all people are endowed with rights,
that the people can by rational discourse make righteous decisions,
that freedom is a birthright, and we must defend it against foes,
that this land is special,
and that God has called us to witness to the world.

These are religious ideas, this is a religious orientation

When foreign observers have opined that this is the only nation
founded on a creed, rather than on a racial identity.
although that is not always clear to victims of racism.


As a person of part Cherokee descent
I have looked at the myths and visions of this republic,
and recognize that it has been blind to its own power,
arrogant toward the rights of other peoples,
presumptuous about God's favoritism,

but I am mature enough to recognize that
that kind of triumphalism is not unique to the United States.

Think Pagan Rome, and Catholic Europe
Generally Civic religions are about the celebration of the State,
they involve the perpetuation of the national dream.

and for the most part Civic religions are hardly prophetic, and even profound,
they are defensive and do not judge themselves.

But the American Creed has inspired generations of people
to struggle for greater freedoms and for the realization of rights.
Has brought forth true patriots who have shared their criticisms
of the State, and those criticisms have led to positive change.


Lincoln invoked the language of the Founder's Creed at Gettysburg,
and before as an aspiring politician in his stump speeches,

as have other Presidents as well.

The woman's movement and the civil rights movement
in recent times
have invoked the promise of freedom, inclusion, and rights.

If we have a civic religion in common

now what about separation of church and state?

The United States from its beginnings has been the home
to several contending religious communities,
in 1776 and for nearly a century to follow
liberal and evangelical were in contention.
Before that
reform and Anglican have been in contention,
Catholics have had to fight for their rights in Protestant country,


and now we have a nation were Moslems outnumber Episcopalians,
and their are as many Bahai as there are Quakers.
Buddhists are more numerous than Presbyterians,
and Catholics whose language in their own home is not English,
make up half of all Catholics.

Yet,  most of these groups have learned to articulate the common civic religion.

The separation of church and state works,
not because we have a secular majority,
we don't.....
nor because the majority accepts  a secular neutrality by the government,
they don't and never have,

It has worked  because the liberal and conservative,
evangelical and liturgical,
Jew and Moslem
Hindu and Siek
all allow the civic religion to perform its unifying task.



Churches in the past taught their special and parochial myths,
and  taught doctrines that created some unique ways of being,
to their own followers.

but the people of this country also have shared in a common discourse,
expressed in July 4 speeches by politicians,
State of the Union addresses by presidents,
and celebrated in civics classes in the common schools.

Which raises the prophetic question,
is it possible that the civic religion is being pulled apart?


If a substantial number of politicians
substitute the traditional July 4th civic religious discourse,
for the sectarian discourse of a politicized Protestant fundamentalism,
is it possible that civic religion of Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Franklin,       
Monroe, Madison, Lincoln, and countless others will be forsaken,

and we will begin direct religious contention.

It has happened before,
Prohibition arose not out the civic religion's moderation,
but out the passions of the churches,
including the Universalists.

Not a successful experiment,
we might agree.


I have seen plenty of evidence of a strong and vital civic religious center,
especially in the post Sept 11 th period,
where Christians, Jews, Moslems and religious liberals came together,   
to work for understanding and peace.

And I have seen evidence that indicate dissolution of the abiding center,
such as the attempts of some politicians
to gain favor with the religious right.
by attacking the most conservative branch of the government,
the judiciary.

Whatever the future
a renewal of community beyond partisanship and sectarianism,
or division,
time and we the people will determine.

Meanwhile,
we can recall the words that brought the delegates to Philadelphia,
the words of Thomas Paine,
these are the times that try men's souls,
as Paine warned of the powerful King,
intent to rob the people of even the shirts on their backs,
let alone their inherent God given rights.




These are the times that try men and women's souls.

and indeed I am hard put to know of a time that hasn't
tried souls.

We might say that souls grow
by meeting the challenges of the day,
and renewing the vision and the Promise of a free people.


Its a beautiful earth,  let us sing.