There was a lot of talk about soul — one big soul— "The soul of America is defined by the sacred proposition that all are created equal in the image of God." And a "sacred flame" of liberty that "lit our way" and "still burns" and "will guide us forward." It took a Biblical tone against those who "live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies."
There's lots of material at that Wikipedia article, I'll just copy the 14 principle tenets identified by political sociologist Anthony Squiers:
- Filial piety
- Reverence to certain sacred texts and symbols such as the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the flag
- The sanctity of American institutions
- The belief in God or a deity
- The idea that rights are divinely given
- The notion that freedom comes from God through government
- Governmental authority comes from God or a higher transcendent authority
- The conviction that God can be known through the American experience
- God is the supreme judge
- God is sovereign
- America's prosperity results from God's providence
- America is a "city on a hill" or a beacon of hope and righteousness
- The principle of sacrificial death and rebirth
- America serves a higher purpose than self-interests
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31 comments:
This speech wasn't about religion.
This entire speech was part of a game theory A/B test.
It was specifically designed to be the B.
His 180-degree walkback the next day is designed to be the A.
Biden's pollsters will now poll the electorate to see which position Biden should take. Websites do this all the time with different competing narratives to see which one to use.
If the polls reveal that the electorate liked the speech, that gives Biden the go-ahead to begin setting up the concentration camps and shipping in the Zyklon B.
If the polls reveal that the electorate didn't like the speech, they'll continue testing different speeches that evince toward the same goal: Figuring out which speech, put in a certain way, achieves the goal of setting up the concentration camps and bringing in the Zyklon B.
The goal never changes. Just the methods and speech used to get the end result.
If this bears a resemblance to a particular religion that would have to be: Satanism.
Is Joe Biden the anti-Christ warned about in Revelations? Discuss.
A behavioral protocol with a moral and rational foundation.
Hardcore libs don't believe in God so they worship the state...
Now there's a formulation that's not very appealing to atheist patriots. Turns out that Joe "You know the thing" Biden doesn't know the thing. Our foundational documents say nothing about being created in the image of some deity. Jefferson would likely not be amused.
From Lincoln’s Lyceum address:
“Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap--let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;--let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.”
Yes
Methinks that idea had been around for a long long time. Probably since somewhere around 1776 0r so.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
Remember him? Signed the Declaration of Independence and served as the second Presient of the USA.
If you keep this up, you’ll start sounding like Gretchen Carlson - a Stanford-educated violinist who claimed to have first learned the meaning of the word “czar” at the age of about 43.
The civic religion is much older than the perverse Evangelical infiltration of American government by Jerry Falwell, et al. Rome had one. America’s “city on a hill” was venerable enough for Reagan to use that expression in a more generalized, less sectarian way than his “moral majority” bankrollers would have been inclined to.
It’s never too late to actually learn about your own country. But it does beg the question of what you thought the Reaganite gang was up to all along. Even an actual Evangelical like Jimmy Carter never sought to turn America into the theocracy that Reagan and his right-wing successors did.
He left out reverence for our Founding Fathers and the Rule of Law.
The Left disagrees with - or perverts - our civil religion.
Government is religion only to Democrats.
And then- there's what does the CHurch of Jesus Christ of Latter DAy Sints have to say on the subject.
I would think this would be common knowledge, but I strongly suspect it isn't. I know about it- and I am far from Mormon. The title of the article and author is:
The Divinely Inspired Constitution
By Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Of the Quorum of the Twelve
Published 1992. I knew of this Mormon belief in HS- I graduated in 1973. But we had a very interesting group of teachers in my high school's social studies/history department.
Civil religion sounds like Deism mixed with American exceptionalism.
I noticed how the word 'sacred' was repeated in the speech. By the end, I was hearing the voice of Inigo Montoya, "You keep using that word, but I do not think you know what it means."
All men are created equal in the eyes of God. No affirmative action program there.
I have always thought there is a sort of "civiC religion" Americanism that is related to American exceptionalism.
As for Professor Squiers' Fourteen Points . . . sign me out. They are more divorced from reality than Professor Wilson's.
There are several expats on our swim team who've become American citizens. They definitely buy into the secular humanistic US Constitutional religion. In Massachusetts, it's on our license plates: Spirit of America. New Hampshire too: Live Free or Die
There are a set of principles the nation was founded on:
1. We are born with natural rights than cannot be taken away by the government.
2. We are all equal under the law.
3. We have freedom of association and speech.
4. We have the right to self defense.
There are some others but they tend to be derivations of the above.
The Modern Democrat party and their Republican allies in DC are apposed to every one of these principles.
They are enemies of freedom and it really is time for them to go to a country that reflects their principles. Like China.
I'll just copy the 14 principle tenets identified by political sociologist Anthony Squiers:
Those points are all garbage. Of course a "sociologist professor" was able to twist the foundations of individual freedom into a twisted collectivist screed.
Christian Nationalism Explained: An Interview with Rutgers Professor Joseph Williams
So religious symbolism in politics makes some people uncomfortable, well here, how does this come across? Let’s mainstream radicalism, hey? We wouldn’t want to leave anyone out.
Achilles takes on the role of the fire and brimstone preacher of MAGA! He’s here to whip any of you lukewarm moderate fence sitters in shape, or else he’ll call you “baaaaaad people”. The Lord God said he would spew you out of his mouth if you were lukewarm, Achilles wants you hot for Trump!
If the great majority of citizens wants to explicitly define, state, or change any perceived statements about what the country is based on there is a way to do that in the constitution. There could be an amendment that changes all references to the word God to some other word. Or an amendment stating that the source of human rights is not God.
Put your energy to a strategy that may produce results, if that is what you want.
Blogger Howard said...
There are several expats on our swim team who've become American citizens. They definitely buy into the secular humanistic US Constitutional religion. In Massachusetts, it's on our license plates: Spirit of America. New Hampshire too: Live Free or Die
Howard, get back on your meds. That makes no sense.
Blogger Inga said...
Achilles takes on the role of the fire and brimstone preacher of MAGA! He’s here to whip any of you lukewarm moderate fence sitters in shape, or else he’ll call you “baaaaaad people”. The Lord God said he would spew you out of his mouth if you were lukewarm, Achilles wants you hot for Trump!
The resident dullard ignores Biden's speech Thursday night. She loved the Nazi theme.
People need to stop with the political theology. See through the bullshit. Biden doesn't give a damn about "Democracy". Nor does the NYT/wapo/Schumer/Pelosi. They can quote the scripture, but as they say.. the devil can quote the scripture for his own purpose.
The Democrats piss on the Country. They HATE patriotism. you think Joe biden really cares about America? LOL! You think he's a "God fearing Catholic"? LOL. This huckster has been in DC feeding at the DC Trough for 50 years!
Biden and the MSM are like Stalin and the Communists. DUring WW II they played the "Russian Patriot" and even re-opened the Orthodox Churches. They needed the "workers and peasants" to fight for them. After the war, it went back to athiesm and internationalism.
Its the same ol' leftwing playbook. Alisnky's rules. Say whatever you have to win, baby. You may hate the USA, but wave ol' Glory if it means that's the only way you can keep power. You despise the average 'murican. but shout about "Democracy" if that's the way to win.
The Left puts power above principle because without power you can do nothing.
The Right puts principle above power, because they are natural born losers.
In my experience, 6, 7, and 10 are just wrong. I was raised in a patriotic, religious household, and those three ideas were not part of my education or culture. The others, yeah.
"Reverence to certain sacred texts and symbols such as the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the flag"
The latest prog thing is to call for abolishing the Constitution.
"The sanctity of American institutions"
The Electoral College, the Supreme Court, police . . . yeah, right.
"The belief in God or a deity"
Americans are losing faith, and the Dem party is their main destination.
"The idea that rights are divinely given"
Unlike rights that are Dem-given.
"The notion that freedom comes from God through government"
Freedom? What freedom?
"America is a "city on a hill" or a beacon of hope and righteousness
But now strictly in a woke sense, as WR Mead explained recently. Or Mott on the Woke Imperium.
"America serves a higher purpose than self-interests"
This is the one tenet progs still support wholeheartedly. Social justice is a higher purpose than self-interests, though in practice it often means satisfying the self-interests of core Dem constituencies.
As I understand it, civil religion is supposed to be widely shared, regardless of denomination or party. In that sense, it is gone.
“That makes no sense.”
That’s because you’re senile. You should find out what meds Biden takes, it may help you.
Yes, "civil religion" has been around for a while, though the thing goes back much further than Bellah's articulation of the idea. At issue is whether it's a celebration of ourselves and our system or whether it's tied up with (Christian) concepts of sin and guilt, modesty and redemption. Also at issue is how it relates to theistic religion and the extent to which the two are compatible.
I suppose though, that we have to distinguish civil religion from civil theology. Civil religion is the flags and monuments and holidays and ceremonies and Founders and heroes and belief in one's country -- the things that aren't much honored today. Civil theology is all those hard questions mentioned above.
Biden was trying to say that believing that he was elected fair and square is believing in our democracy is believing in America. He was evoking the symbols of civil religion and identifying them with himself and his election and using them to bash his opponents.
Governmental authority comes from God or a higher transcendent authority
The whole list is just plugging in the authors prejudices.
But this one borders on gibberish. Govt power comes from the people. Dems work 26 hours a day to obliterate that basic tenet.
I thought Church and State were to be separated?
The State as Church sounds rather fascist to me. I prefer them in their own sphere, all metaphors aside. Caesar is Caesar, God is God, and all of that, you see.
Government authority coming from God is another way of saying "Divine Right of Kings" which is not very American. The American way is Governmental authority comes from the People.
Political authority from God is also a primary Muslim notion.
Fuck that.
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