In the fall of 1971, I began a Master of Divinity Degree program at Duke University. One of my initial courses in moral philosophy and ethics included the study of what was being described then as, “a troubling resurgence of an American theology called, ‘Civil Religion’.”
Now, fifty years later, Civil Religion is better known as the religious expression advanced by evangelical nationalists of the American, Christian Right. It is the “worship” of an American myth. It is an American belief structure that claims God was at the center of this country’s beginnings and was also at the very center of the personal faith of our founding fathers. (Big oops on the slavery part). It is the religious underpinning of white supremacy; the notion that white men are the entitled elders and head of this American household.
People who hold fast to this American civil, religious myth are also certain that the faith of our fathers is under attack as never before. So, the worship of America and America’s god needs to be reclaimed. It must be restored by true patriots – like white guys carrying guns and fomenting armed insurrection – to restore America to its true, national self.
This is why, on January 6th, there were spontaneous prayer groups among the armed insurrectionists praying for their tribal deity’s support as they stormed the Capitol and sought to overturn what they believed to be a fraudulent election. (All those votes by black and brown infidel-type people do not count.)
This is why many of the thousands marching on the Capitol that day carried and waved “Jesus Saves” flags. The Jesus of their civil religion is THE ultimate founding father of the one, true, faith that is to be observed in this divinely created country. This is why, in the name of that same Jesus, insurrectionists could claim they were taking back “the people’s house.” Read, their house.
Across these past 50 years living amidst this growing, ever-more-strident-and-violent expression of the Christian Right, I have come to two very disconcerting conclusions. The first is my long-held – and often vociferously stated – claim that the Christian Right is neither Christian nor right. The second is that with people who hold this civil religious belief there is no common ground for having discussion on a civil way forward. We should stop seeking such mythical geography.
There is no common ground when alternate facts are accepted as truth. There is no common ground to be discovered when the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Gospels are interpreted exclusively through a white, American, male lens.
There is no common ground to be discovered when priests of American Civil Religion teach that the 4,000-year-old textual history and understanding of the Hebrew Bible’s only truth lies in understanding that its prophecy is for present-day America. There is no common ground for discussion with those who believe that the Bible was written for 21st century Americans to warn of impending Armageddon. There is no common ground upon which to build a table and around which there can be meaningful, productive, civil conversation for a common, inclusive good when evangelists of this perspective believe that only their raptured tribe will be saved from global destruction.
There is no common ground when advocates of civil religion believe that the founding fathers were examples of true believers. In fact, the founders believed more in the entitlement of the landed gentry, often cared little for personal, religious practice, and argued over the very government they formed and the Constitution around which it was built. Adams, Hamilton, and Jefferson hated each other. Madison rarely thought the Constitution, which he had largely authored, was understood correctly by Washington.
What is required of those of us who understand what it means to be a child of God far differently than the voices of far-right religious leaders and their armed insurrectionist congregations? I believe that what is required is that rather that common ground, we seek a higher ground.
The higher ground is the geography of wrestling with what it means – and proclaiming examples of what it means – to love one’s neighbor. The people of the Torah have always known this. The Jesus of the Gospels figured it out. That same spiritual and existential truth in each and every great faith tradition has held the promise of overcoming tribal deities of destruction by climbing to such higher ground.
The higher ground is not easy to reach. It requires – among other things – that we pray for those who believe differently. Proverbs 25:22, Matthew 5:44, and Romans 12:20 speak of this need for claiming higher ground INSTEAD OF SEARCHING for common ground. Praying for an enemy (those who spiritually and politically discount us) is an essential act of self-care. Our prayers are not prayers for the enemy’s success, but an act of lifting the enemy up trusting in God’s grace. The praying for the “enemy” provides a positive and constructive discipline FOR US. It takes the anger and frustration we feel inside for them and “heaps” the burning coals of our outrage on their heads rather than allow those coals to burn with resentment in our souls.
Seeking higher ground has always been a hard climb. But, arguing and fighting in search of a mythical common ground with religious advocates of self-righteous beliefs of superiority and exclusion is a trivial pursuit that leads only to graveyards.