“The civil religion is obviously involved in the most pressing moral and political issues of the day. “God” has clearly been a central symbol in the civil religion from the beginning and remains so today (Bellah 13)”. This statement was posed by Robert Bellah in his paper “Civil Religion in America”. I agree that people turn to and use religion as a scapegoat in the midst of conflict just as they do with politics.
In order to observe the closeness between the two entities, politics and religion, we must realize that they are bound together by the people and government recognition of, “the existence of God, the life to come, the reward of virtue and the punishment of vice, and the exclusion of religious tolerance,” (Bellah 5). The American …show more content…
People use their religious guidelines, no matter what form of religion they believe in, to lead their life especially in times of fear or crisis. When civilians are in a crisis or are in fear of war and other government crisis they look to religion and the components that make up the democracy. American civil religion and the whole concept that formed it were world issues, more importantly the Vietnam War. Civil religion validated political and military error. Civil religion made religion and state cohesive entities in order to help ease society's’ fears and reassure them that the mistakes of the past would not be repeated in present and future history. As years preceded the Vietnam War and over the years until present as national crises occurred the people looked to the government and the government used the symbolic God produced by the American civil religion to bind the constituents of America together to preserve the country and culture and all of the values that create the United States of America.
The American civil religion is ever changing and is a figment of the imagination produced through times of hardship. There is one single religion that unites everyone and that is the American civil religion because it creates a unified vision of American ideals, visions, and traditions. Consciously, American civil religion is not a form of true religion but it is a merger between the many diverse religions in America to try to improve and excel politically, economically, militarily, and
In order to observe the closeness between the two entities, politics and religion, we must realize that they are bound together by the people and government recognition of, “the existence of God, the life to come, the reward of virtue and the punishment of vice, and the exclusion of religious tolerance,” (Bellah 5). The American …show more content…
People use their religious guidelines, no matter what form of religion they believe in, to lead their life especially in times of fear or crisis. When civilians are in a crisis or are in fear of war and other government crisis they look to religion and the components that make up the democracy. American civil religion and the whole concept that formed it were world issues, more importantly the Vietnam War. Civil religion validated political and military error. Civil religion made religion and state cohesive entities in order to help ease society's’ fears and reassure them that the mistakes of the past would not be repeated in present and future history. As years preceded the Vietnam War and over the years until present as national crises occurred the people looked to the government and the government used the symbolic God produced by the American civil religion to bind the constituents of America together to preserve the country and culture and all of the values that create the United States of America.
The American civil religion is ever changing and is a figment of the imagination produced through times of hardship. There is one single religion that unites everyone and that is the American civil religion because it creates a unified vision of American ideals, visions, and traditions. Consciously, American civil religion is not a form of true religion but it is a merger between the many diverse religions in America to try to improve and excel politically, economically, militarily, and