 | God and War: American Civil Religion since 1945 Subjects: Civil religion -- United States; United States -- Religion -- 1945–; United States -- History Military -- Religious aspects; For better or worse, America has a civil religion, a common creed and set of assertions, like "one nation under God," that unifies the nation and provides moral accounting, according to Haberski (It's Only a Movie), a history professor at Marian University in Indianapolis. Haberski argues that a powerful association of civil religion with war crystallized in WWII and has lasted through the "war on terror." He traces how claims to moral authority and principles of freedom from Martin Luther King Jr. to Ronald Reagan are often authorized through ideas of American exceptionalism and violence. At times, civil religion seems to masquerade merely as a stealth form of Christianity, unchecked patriotism, or American hubris. Neoconservatives like Irving Kristol, for instance, saw no contradiction between the military as the embodiment of the highest ideals of American life and a force unleashing death. Haberski notes that there is "nothing verifiable" about civil religion, but he still makes a claim that Americans have a national creed they cannot reject and "need to believe in something worthy of the sacrifices that have been and will continue to be made in the name of the nation." (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. RAYMOND HABERSKI JR. is an associate professor of history at Marian University. He is the author of several books, including It's Only a Movie: Films and Critics in American Culture , The Miracle Case: Film Censorship and the Supreme Court , and Freedom to Offend: How New York Remade Movie Culture . |
