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)