The Function of Propaganda

Image: U.S. Government World War II propaganda poster urging civilians to participate in the war effort. Source: University of North Texas Digital Library

The function of propaganda is to make evil look good, the demonic divine, violence like peacemaking, tyranny and oppression like liberation. It makes blind, unquestioning allegiance appear to be freely chosen, religiously appropriate devotion. The grand lie does not appear to start as deception, but only as rhetorical exaggeration. The exaggeration deepens, lengthens, and broadens in an almost organic act of self-distortion. Eventually the rhetoric becomes blatant falsehood, but now people have not only come to believe the lie, they also live the lie; over time they have been narrated into it. At that point, the exaggeration-turned-falsehood becomes uncontested and uncontestable truth, and its effects highly dangerous. Evil in the name of good and of God is now nearly inevitable, as the lie functions as an apocalypse, a religious revelation that only a true Apocalypse can unveil.

Michael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly (pp. 125-126)

The true Jews believe in Jesus

Ruins of ancient Smyrna 

The Smyrnan church’s tribulation and poverty resulted from physical and economic assaults, which will be symbolized in the beast that attacks the saints and makes submission to his “mark” the condition for enjoying the prosperity of his evil empire (Rev. 13:7, 16-17). This church’s affliction was instigated by slanderous accusations brought by “those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (2:9; 3:9). Though ethnically descended from Israel’s patriarchs, the opponents actions show that they are not God’s people but Satan’s synagogue. God shows covenant faithfulness to families through the generations, but in the last analysis the people of God are defined Christocentrically, not genealogically. The issue is not birth from the flesh but birth from the Spirit (John 3:6), just as the circumcision that marks God’s people is not a fleshly surgery but a cleansing of the heart by the Spirit (Rom. 2:28-29; cf. Phil. 3:2-3). Gentiles, once not a people, have been called to become “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9-10; 1:18). Titles that once set Israel apart (Exod. 19:5-6) now belong to all who belong to Jesus, who abide in him as branches in the true vine, bearing fruit pleasing to the Father (John 15:1-8; Isa. 5:1-7). 

Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation (p. 74) 

"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." ~ Saint Paul (Romans 2:28-29) 

Discerning the purpose of the book of Revelation

As we have already noted, most people interpret the book of Revelation as a kind of advance DVD of the end of the world. The focus of the book, they think, is eschatology, the last things. In a sense, of course, eschatology is indeed a focus of the last book of the Bible, but in a profound sense eschatology is not the ultimate focus of Revelation. Rather, as in the rest of Scripture, the eschatology we find in Revelation is a means to an end. Its intention is to give hope to people in trying and/or tempting times so that they will remain faithful to their covenantal commitment to God.

In other words, the purpose of the book of Revelation is to persuade its hearers and readers, both ancient and contemporary, to remain faithful to God in spite of past, present, or possible future suffering—whatever form that suffering might take, and whatever source it may have—simply for being faithful. In spite of memory, experience, or fear, Revelation tells us, covenant faithfulness is possible because of Jesus and worthwhile because of the glorious future God has in store for us and for the entire created order. 

Revelation, we might say, provides us with a vivid, imaginative, and prophetic call to an “anti-assimilationist” and life-giving Christian witness to, against, and within an immoral and idolatrous imperial culture of death. It does so not only by offering the hope of God’s future salvation, but also by showing us that God is sovereign even now. The combination of that future assurance and the present reality of God’s sovereignty means that life now should and can be lived as a life of worship and faithfulness to God and the Lamb. 

Michael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly (pp. 74-75)      

America’s civil religion is pagan, seductive, and dangerous.

It has often been said that the most common idols in the West are Power, Sex, and Money; with this I am not in any profound disagreement. However, inasmuch as these idols are connected to a larger vision of life, such as the American dream, or the inalienable rights of free people, they become part of a nation’s civil religion. I would contend, in fact, that the most alluring and dangerous deity in the United States is the omnipresent, syncretistic god of nationalism mixed with Christianity lite: religious beliefs, language, and practices that are superficially Christian but infused with national myths and habits. Sadly, most of this civil religion’s practitioners belong to Christian churches, which is precisely why Revelation is addressed to the seven churches (not to Babylon), to all Christians tempted by the civil cult...

The sacred myths of civil religion are expressed, reinforced, honored, and propagated in sacred symbols, spaces, rituals, and holy-days. These occasions use sacred language, music, texts, and stories. Space does not permit a full discussion, but some of these American symbols and practices—often with close parallels elsewhere—are listed here.

Some Symbols and Practices of American Civil Religion

Sacred Symbols and Spaces:

• National flags as sacred objects
• Nationals flags (sometimes juxtaposed with “Christian flags”) in churches
• Crosses in military of other non-church contexts (e.g., military medals in the form of a cross)
• Blending of Christian and national images (e.g., cross and flag, Jesus and flag)

Sacred Rituals and holy-days

• Civil rituals made religious
• Official days of prayer
• National feast/holy days (e.g., Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans’ Day)
• State funerals
• Moments of silence
• Congressional chaplain
• Prayer at political and civic events
• Prayer around the flag pole
• National days of prayer, prayer breakfasts
• The pledge of allegiance, at school or other civic gatherings, to the flag as icon of the nation “under God”
• The national anthem at sporting events
• Swearing on the Bible
• Chaplain’s prayers before military combat missions

Religious rituals made civil 

• Pledge of allegiance in church
• Recognition of military or veterans in church at national holidays
• Prayers for those “serving our country” or “the/our troops” in church
• Sermons and children’s sermons on patriotic themes
• Use of patriotic music in worship
• Religious events on national holidays
• Religious gatherings in times of national crisis

Sacred language

• War as “mission”
• “Sacred” duty/honor
• Divine passive voice: “we are called” (e.g., at a certain moment in history, usually before a war)
• “God bless America”/“God bless our troops”
• Echoes of/allusions to the Bible in civic and political discourse
• Attribution of biblical language for God or God’s people to the U.S. (e.g., “the light of the world”; “city on a hill”)
• Lack of theological specificity (e.g., the omission of Jesus’ name from public prayer and Scripture reading)

Sacred music/national hymns

• Patriotic songs or sacred devotion with much (“God Bless America”), some (“America/My Country Tis of Thee”), or even no explicit religious language (the national anthem)
• Hymns with explicitly nationalistic and militaristic language (e.g., “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “Navy Hymn)
• Hymns with allegorical militaristic language interpreted literally and nationalistically (e.g., “Onward Christian Soldiers”)

Sacred Texts

• The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights
• Famous speeches by sacred leader and heroes (e.g., Patrick Henry, Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King)
• Biblical texts that seem to underwrite national values such as freedom and redemptive violence

Sacred stories of sacred leaders and heroes (“saints”/“martyrs”/“prophets”)

• Founding Fathers
• Leaders in crisis (e.g., Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage)
• Great warriors (e.g., Patton)
• Veterans in general

These various aspects of American civil religion come to expression in two kinds of venues: the civil and political (speeches, parades, school events, sporting events, military ceremonies, etc.), on the one hand, and the religious (church worship services), on the other.

From this listing we can recognize another aspect of the similarity between Roman and contemporary American civil religion. The former involved the politicization (specifically, the imperialization) of the sacred, and the sacralization of the political (specifically, the imperial). This is parallel to what happened in the U.S.: many civic and political events have a religious dimension, and religious events sometimes take on a civic and political—specifically nationalistic, and even militaristic—dimension. This process continues to this day, despite the formal constraints of law and consequent changes in practice (such as the abolition of school prayer).

One major difference, however, is extremely important to recognize: the syncretism of Rome’s civil religion involved the blending of Roman ideology and pagan religiosity, but the syncretism of American civil religion involves the blending of American ideology and Christian, or at least theistic and quasi-Christian, religiosity. The early church had a natural suspicion of Roman civil religion because it was so blatantly pagan and idolatrous—though even it could be appealing. Contemporary Christians can much more easily assume that Christian, or quasi-Christian, ideas, language, and practices are benign and even divinely sanctioned. This makes American civil religion all the more attractive—that is, all the more seductive and dangerous. Its fundamentally pagan character is masked by its Christian veneer.

Michael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly (pp. 56; 50-54)

The Theology/Ideology of American Civil Religion in the Beginning of the 21st Century

The film, Pershing's Crusaders, was released in 1918

There are several interconnected myths or theological themes that permeate American civil religion. Most if not all of these themes have been present for many years (even dating back to before the nation’s founding), but of course they have evolved with the nation.

One foundational theopolitical conviction or sacred myth is exceptionalism, the idea that the United States has a unique place in God’s plan, that it is in some sense chosen. In American history this exceptionalism has manifested itself in such beliefs as the Puritan “city on a hill” (Matt. 5:14), Manifest Destiny, and the identification of the U.S. as “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14; John 8:12; 9:5). Similar to and sometimes growing out of exceptionalism is American messianism, the notion that the U.S. has a special, central vocation in the salvation of the world, particularly through the spread of American practices of freedom and American-style democracy. This belief in an exceptional role and messianic destiny to spread freedom is the backbone of America’s national religion. Arising from it is a myth of innocence, of possessing “an element of messianic inerrancy.” This third myth holds that America always operates in the world according to the highest principles of ethics and justice, and that when criticized or attacked, America is the innocent, righteous victim.

Belief in an exceptional, messianic role naturally generates another sacred conviction (and associated practices), that of extreme patriotism, extreme love of country, and even nationalism, the belief that one’s nation state, in this case the U.S., is superior to all other nation states. “Nationalism” (as I am using it here) is extreme devotion to one’s country as “the greatest nation of earth” and therefore worthy of nearly unqualified—and sometimes thoroughly unqualified—allegiance. This devotion is often based on the conviction that the nation is chosen, blessed, and commissioned by God, its power and wealth being signs of God’s approval. The U.S. is “one nation under God.” Thus devotion to one’s country and its mission in the world is ultimately a religious devotion. Greatness is defined especially as financial, political, and/or military strength, and this definition carries with it the conviction that both America and Americans should always enjoy and operate from a position of strength and security. Weakness is un-American; Americans want to be number one. For many, these kinds of secular strengths are seen as manifestations of power from God.

American civil religion values human liberty and rights as a divine gift and considers it, perhaps on par with strength, as one of the highest national values. The protection and furtherance of freedom is therefore a divine mandate and mission. The operative notion of both political (corporate) and personal (individual) freedom is that of God-given (inalienable) rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, an idea derived from both the Enlightenment and from one of the most important sacred texts of this civil religion, the Declaration of Independence. A corollary myth is a form of secularized Calvinism, the notion that hard work mixed with a degree of generosity toward others will inevitably result in greater and greater freedom and prosperity, often understood as a sign of God’s blessing. (The so-called “prosperity gospel” is an offshoot of this myth.)

Yet another sacred myth in American civil religion is that of militarism and sacred violence. This is the conviction that part of America’s exceptionalism and messianic place in history is its divinely granted permission, indeed its divine mandate, to use violence (killing of native peoples, invasions, wars, etc.) when peaceful means are undesirable or unsuccessful. Such allegedly sacred violence has justified various forms of expansion and, more recently, of the messianic mission or protecting and promoting freedom and justice. This myth can foster a crusade mentality (“ridding the world of evil”) rooted in an apocalyptic dualism, but without the corollary commitment to nonviolence we will find in Revelation.

The “myth of redemptive violence undergirds American popular culture, civil religion, nationalism, and foreign policy,” argues Walter Wink [Engaging the Powers, 13]. It underwrites the belief that killing and/or dying for the nation—especially in military service, and particularly dying for one’s country—is the highest form of both civic and religious devotion. After all, the civil religion argument goes, quoting but misinterpreting Jesus, “greater love has no man that this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13; RSV).

These are some of the basic sacred myths and convictions of American civil religion. This ideology, or theology, has remarkable parallels with the Roman imperial theology discussed above.

Michael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly (pp. 48-50) 

Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican

And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke 18:9-14)

Dixit autem et ad quosdam qui in se confidebant tamquam justi, et aspernabantur ceteros, parabolam istam: Duo homines ascenderunt in templum ut orarent: unus pharisaeus et alter publicanus. Pharisaeus stans, haec apud se orabat: Deus, gratias ago tibi, quia non sum sicut ceteri hominum: raptores, injusti, adulteri, velut etiam hic publicanus: jejuno bis in sabbato, decimas do omnium quae possideo. Et publicanus a longe stans, nolebat nec oculos ad caelum levare: sed percutiebat pectus suum, dicens: Deus propitius esto mihi peccatori. Dico vobis, descendit hic justificatus in domum suam ab illo: quia omnis qui se exaltat, humiliabitur, et qui se humiliat, exaltabitur. (Lucam XVIII:IX-XIV)

Εἶπεν δὲ καὶ πρός τινας τοὺς πεποιθότας ἐφ' ἑαυτοῖς ὅτι εἰσὶν δίκαιοι καὶ ἐξουθενοῦντας τοὺς λοιποὺς τὴν παραβολὴν ταύτην· Ἄνθρωποι δύο ἀνέβησαν εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν προσεύξασθαι ὁ εἷς Φαρισαῖος καὶ ὁ ἕτερος τελώνης ὁ Φαρισαῖος σταθεὶς πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ταῦτα προσηύχετο Ὁ θεός εὐχαριστῶ σοι ὅτι οὐκ εἰμὶ ὥσπερ οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἅρπαγες ἄδικοι μοιχοί ἢ καὶ ὡς οὗτος ὁ τελώνης· νηστεύω δὶς τοῦ σαββάτου ἀποδεκατῶ πάντα ὅσα κτῶμαι καὶ ὁ τελώνης μακρόθεν ἑστὼς οὐκ ἤθελεν οὐδὲ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν ἐπᾶραι ἀλλ' ἔτυπτεν εἰς τὸ στῆθος αὐτοῦ λέγων, Ὁ θεός ἱλάσθητί μοι τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ λέγω ὑμῖν κατέβη οὗτος δεδικαιωμένος εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ ἢ ἐκεῖνος· ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ὑψῶν ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται ὁ δὲ ταπεινῶν ἑαυτὸν ὑψωθήσεται (ΚΑΤΑ ΛΟΥΚΑΝ 18:9-14)

God’s final word of revelation to the world

Lucas Cranach - The Law and the Gospel

“He [Christ] had come, not to destroy Moses and his work, not to undermine the rightful prestige of the Old Testament mediator, but to bring the religion of Moses to its promised perfection by elevating its commands and teachings to an unexpected grandeur… Just as Moses ascended the mount of Sinai to give the Old Law, Christ ascended the lakeside mountain to deliver the New Law, one incomparably superior to that of Moses. This New Law calls blest the poor, the sorrowful, the meek, the just, the merciful, the simple, the peacemakers, the persecuted. It insists on the internal dispositions of men rather than on external practices, on the spirit which should inspire alms, prayers and fastings more than on the actions themselves. Above all, it demands a constant and perfect practice of universal love and in this, particularly, does the New Law of Christ differ sharply from the Mosaic Law which was based solidly on the virtue of justice.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:38-45)

In conclusion then, we can determine the following important aspects of Christ’s apostolate. His teaching was his acceptance of the role previously held by Moses. He had come as the greatest of all prophets, the incarnate Word of God bearing God’s final word of revelation to the world. In a manner surpassing that of Moses, he had also come as the new Law-giver, and this law could be reduced to one command—love. He called for a truly interior dedication to God, for which the phrase, ‘utter and undying love,’ seems the only sufficient description.”

Neal M. Flanagan, Salvation History, pp. 150;159