Favorite Quote of the Day

Gentile on Civil Religion

There is not, however, a contradiction between the principle of the separation of church and state asserted by the Constitution, and the profession of religious faith expressed by the mottos, symbols, and political rituals of the United States. The reason is that faith in God or the Almighty as expressed in symbols and political rituals of the American nation is the manifestation of a particular form of religion, one that does not correspond to any particular religion professed by the citizens of the United States. It is a civil religion, by which we mean a system of beliefs, values, myths, rituals, and symbols that confer an aura of sanctity on the United States as a political entity, and on the country’s institutions, history, and destiny in the world.

The American civil religion has its own “holy scriptures,” the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, which are treasured and venerated like the Tables of the Law. It has its own prophets, such as the Pilgrim Fathers. It celebrates its own sacred Heroes such as George Washington, the “American Moses” who freed the “new people of Israel” from slavery under the English and led them to the Promised Land of freedom, independence, and democracy. It venerates its martyrs, such as Abraham Lincoln, the sacrificial victim assassinated on Good Friday of 1865, after the American nation had been subjected to the purifying fires of a cruel civil war to expiate its guilt and reestablish the hallowed nature of its unity and mission. John Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. then became further examples of martyrdom for this civil religion, alongside the figure of Lincoln. Like all religions, this civil religion has its own temples for the veneration of its leading figures, such as the monument to Washington, the Lincoln Memorial, and Arlington Cemetery, where the tomb of the Unknown Soldier is revered as a symbol for the citizens who fell to save their nation. Finally, the civil religion has its sermons and liturgy: the presidential inaugural speeches, Independence Day on 4 July, Thanksgiving Day, Memorial Day when the war dead are commemorated, and other collective ceremonies that celebrate personalities and events in American history turned by myth into a “sacred history” of a nation elected by God to fulfill its particular mission in the world.

Politics as Religion by Emilio Gentile

Gutiérrez on the Political and the Radical

For the contemporary historical consciousness, things political are no only those which one attends to during the free time afforded by one’s private life; nor are they even a well-defined area of human existence. The construction–from its economic bases–of the “polis,” of a society in which people can live in solidarity, is a dimension which encompasses and severely conditions all human activity. It is the sphere for the exercise of a critical freedom which is won down through history. It is the sphere for the exercise of a critical freedom which is won down through history. It is the universal determinant and the collective arena for human fulfillment. Only within this broad meaning of the political sphere can we situate the more precise notion of “politics,” as an orientation to power. … Nothing Lies outside the political sphere understood in this way. Everything has a political color. It is always in the political fabric–and never outside of it–that a person emerges as a free and responsible being, as a person in relationship with other persons, as someone who takes on a historical task. Personal relationships among themselves through political means.

…In addition to this universality of the political sphere, we are faced with an increasing radicalization of social praxis. Contemporary persons have begun to lose their naiveté as they confront economic and socio-cultural determinants; the deep causes of the situation in which they find themselves are becoming clearer. They realize that to attack these deep causes is the indispensable prerequisite for radical change. and so they have gradually abandoned a simple reformist attitude regarding the existing social order, for, by its very shallowness this reformism perpetuates the existing system. …To support the social revolution means to abolish the present status quo and to attempt to replace it with a qualitatively different one; it means to build a just society based on new relationships of production; it means to attempt to put an end to the domination of some countries by others, of some social classes by others, of some persons by others. The liberation of these countries, social classes, and persons undermines the very foundation of the present order; it is the greatest challenge of our time.

This radicality has led us to see quite clearly that the political arena is necessarily conflictual.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, 30-31.

Liberation as Salvation from Gutiérrez

First, there is liberation from social situations of oppression and marginalization that force many (and indeed all in one or another way) to live in conditions contrary to God’s will for their life. But it is not enough that we be liberated from oppressive socio-economic structures; also needed is a personal transformation by which we live with profound inner freedom in the face of every kind of servitude, and this is the second dimension or level of liberation.

Finally, there is liberation from sin, which attacks the deepest root of all servitude; for sin is the breaking of friendship with God and with other human beings, and therefore cannot be eradicated except by the unmerited redemptive love of the Lord whom we receive by faith and in communion with one another. Theological analysis (and not social or philosophical analysis) leads to the position that only liberation from sin gets to the very source of social injustice and other forms of human oppression and reconciles us with God and our fellow human beings.

… Liberation theology is thus intended as a theology of salvation. Salvation is God’s unmerited action in history, which God leads beyond itself. It is God’s gift of definitive life to God’s children, given in a history in which we must build fellowship. Filiation and fellowship are both a grace and a task to be carried out; these two aspects must be distinguished without being separated, just as, in accordance with the faith of the church as definitively settled at the council of Chalcedon, we distinguish in Christ a divine condition and a human condition, but we do not separate the two.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, 1988 Introduction, pages xxxvii and xxxix

Quote from Mark Lewis Taylor

The argument, again, is not that today’s virulent nationalism and aggressive imperial unilateralism are only due to a humiliation suffered on 9/11, but that groups already steeped in cultures of felt defeat and embattlement [i.e. the Christian Right] have harnessed the fear and patriotism of the post-9/11 moment for their ends.

From Religion, Politics, and the Christian Right: Post-9/11 Powers and American Empire by Mark Lewis Taylor, pg. 69.

Quote from M*A*S*H

Good morning. Well, here we are. It’s Sunday again. I’m sure you’ve all come expecting to hear a sermon. Well, I have to admit I’m not as prepared as I’d like to be. I’m not even dressed as I’d like to be. I was working on my sermon, which I’d hoped would be particularly inspirational in honor of Cardinal Reardon. But I was called away. Well, to be honest, I never got back to it. If you’ll just bear with me, I’d like to share with you the reason why.

I want to tell you about two men, each facing his own crisis. The first man you know rather well. The second is a patient here. Well, the first man thought he was facing a crisis, but what he was really doing was trying to impress someone. He was looking for recognition – encouragement – a pat on the back. Whenever that recognition seemed threatened he reacted rather childishly – blamed everyone for his problems but himself – because he was thinking only of himself.

But the second man was confronted with the greatest crisis mortal man can face – the loss of his life. I think you’ll agree that the second man had every right to be selfish; but instead he chose not to think of himself, but of a brother – a brother. And when the first man saw the dignity and the selflessness of the second man, he realized how petty and selfish he – I – I – I had been that made me see something more clearly than I’ve ever seen it before.

God didn’t put us here for that pat on the back; He created us so He could be here Himself – so that He could exist in the lives of those He created in His image.

Father Mulcahy on discipleship, Season 9, Episode 18

R. Niebuhr Quote on Military Chaplaincy

From Reinhold Niebuhr’s Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic

What makes me angry is the way I kowtow the chaplains as I visit the various camps. Here are the ministers of the gospel, just as I am. Just as I they are also, for the moment, priests of the great god Mars. As ministers of the Christian religion I have no particular respect for them. Yet I am overcome by a terrible inferiority complex when I deal with them. Such is the power of the uniform. Like myself, they have mixed the worship of the God of love and the God of battles. But unlike myself, they have adequate symbols of this double devotion. The little cross on the shoulder is the symbol of their Christian faith. The uniform itself is the symbol of their devotion to the God of battles. It is the uniform and not the cross which impresses me and others. I am impressed even when I know I ought not be.

I think he puts it well, despite the distance of time. In fact, the ability of this quote to continue to speak true tells us even more about a similarity between Christians then and now, rather that also the tension and incompatibility between the State’s violent arm and Christ’s body has always existed.

Quote from Henry V

I got ahold of Kenneth Branaugh’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V. Its well done I think. Also, I came across an interesting little quote that the adaptation retained:

But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all ‘We died at such a place;’ some swearing, some crying for asurgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their argument?

Shakespeare’s Henry V Act IV

Quotes from Lee Griffith

A week or so back I read through The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God by Lee Griffith. I highly recommend the book for anyone thinking about violence, theology and the state or pacifism. The following quotes from the book are only a few of the many insightful points that Griffith over the course of the book. So go get the book and read it.

In nations in which the majority of believers are Christian, the church must bear the responsibility for the ease with which the name of God has been co-opted into the service of carnage. – xii

Meanwhile, the shelling of Muslim neighborhoods by the New Jersey did not differentiate between soldiers and civilians. While there were doubtless members of militia groups residing in these neighborhoods, the bombs could not set them apart from the children or the grandparents or the other women and men who were clearly noncombatants. If the defining feature of terrorism is the civilian identity of those who are targeted, then the “terrorists” in Beirut were not those who bombed military barracks but those who lobbed car-sized bombs into city neighborhoods. – 5

While the source of the dreams is unclear, in Lebanon, the violence can be traced to its sources. When we follow the trail and trace the violence back, we do not find God. We find a mad confluence of godlets. We find principalities and power, imperial nation states and barely organized guerilla fronts, all self-exalted, all petty, and all appealing to as much inhumanity as humans can muster. It is called Liberation and martyrdom. it is called defense and justice. Call it what you will. It is Terrorism. – 6

Nonetheless, the lack of definitional agreement [on what a terrorist and terrorism is] among terrorism experts is pronounced. – 7

…it was Edmund Burke who bequeathed us the definition of “terrorists” as those who are lacking sufficient awe for Father State. Terrorists see the wounds of the state and, rather than exercising caution, they practice subversion. Terrorists approach the state without piety or trembling. – 12

The crux of the extent to which Christians should fulfill their responsibilities as provisional citizens of various localities came with two defining issues: whether Christians could honor the divinity of the emperor, and whether Christians could wield weapons of war. “No” was the resounding answer on both counts during the first three centuries of church history, with very few exceptions to prove the rule. – 24

The American national mythos is messianic; it seeks to tell a story of freedom spread through self-sacrifice, not victories won through the spread of terror. To sustain the myth, Americans need to rewrite history just as surely as did Stalin to sustain his own version of communist orthodoxy. – 38

While technological developments foster claims (albeit false claims) that ours is an age of greater intimacy in the form of a “shrinking globe,” a “world wide web,” and a “global community,” there is no technological drive towards greater intimacy between combatants where all hell breaks loose in the global neighborhood. – 51

Violence is a form of proselytism which preaches that there is no God. The preachments of violence are more effective than televangelists, more zealous in winning converts than those who sell religion door to door. – 68

When doing battle with the demonic, one can never be too prepared or too strong. This also means that one should never allow oneself to feel secure. – 84

If one may not speak with the demons (for to do so would risk contaminating oneself and conferring legitimacy on evil) and if the demons will not change their ways (and how could demons be anything other than demonic?), then warfare is foreordained as the only possible form of engagement. – 86

These are the two sides of the prophetic mission: to announce judgment on the present order and to weep at the consequences the judgment portends. This biblical pattern is so pronounced that it seems fair to suggest that if either side of the mission is lacking, then the word that is being offered is not prophetic. – 119

Religiously oriented, this perennial (if not tedious) sense of new beginnings has become a prerequisite for involvement in U.S. politics. The Reagan campaign of 1984 gave best expression to the theme, simple but pregnant: “It’s morning in America.” – 143

Woven into the very fabric of U.S. origins, terrorism emerged in two forms: (a) in the violent confrontations between cultures on the frontier, and (b) in violent confrontations between the growing consciousness of rural interest and the power elites of the cities. – 145

Revelation is more a book about terror defeated rather than terror inflicted, which is why worship and liturgy are such a central feature of the book. – 205

Rather that being a time of hot persecution, it was a time when the Empire experienced relative calm, when wealth abounded, when the terror of the powerful seemed like no terror – in short, a time like ours. And so, John depicted the Empire not only as a “Beast” with fangs bared in preparation for violence, but also as a “Whore” who seduced victims onto the path of imperial Rome with no need for violent persecutions. – 206

And so in the name of making no concessions to terrorism, governments make the greatest concession of all, meeting terror with terror. – 221

In order to witness to the defeat of terror, churches and other faith communities must also be zones that are free from terror. Rather than peddling fears and threats of damnation, the church is called to witness to the one and only sufficient antidote to terror – the resurrection of Jesus. – 251

To the point of tedium, “God bless America” was the slogan proclaimed by every car wash and burger joint across the country. I saw not a single sign on a commercial enterprise beseeching god to watch over the people of Afghanistan. – 276