And therein is the hypocrisy.
I am certainly not an expert in theology but it seems to me that these political leaders and their followers are not themselves adhering to Christian doctrine.
Setting aside the argument about whether or not Jesus Christ was the son of God, the fact is that there was such a man who taught core values about the way we should treat one another, none of which included turning against others for any reason.
It is, unfortunately, a lot more complicated than that.
If you read the Bible from start to finish, you'll find two different, incompatible, and competing themes throughout: the theme of the avenging God, using the chosen people as a sword to redeem the earth through bloodshed and violence, and the theme of the forgiving God, bringing a message of love, peace,and charity.
These aren't just confined to Old Testament vs. New Testament. The theme of the avenging God is the primary idea in the book of Revelation, for example. The book of Matthew has Jesus saying "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."
The American civil religion has both these mutually antagonistic threads woven deep in it. The folks who say the God of the Bible is kind and loving are correct--but the folks who say the God of the Bible calls for holy war against all who oppose the righteous are
also correct.
No matter what the leaders, political or otherwise, might want or direct, there are a lot of people who simply go about living their lives according to their beliefs. It's likely that many would be among those that Tacit mentioned to as having been persecuted at home.
One of my girlfriends is Quaker; she certainly lives her life by her beliefs, without engaging in the sort of chicanery that gives religion a bad name.
But there's a gotcha: the American civil religion isn't necessarily about religious leaders or churches. Even folks who don't consider themselves churchgoers and who don't belong to an organized religion can still buy into its ideas. Ideas like
- the United States is an exceptional nation, totally unlike any other that has ever existed, and therefore deserving to be the world's dominant superpower
- The United States is on a mission to bring peace and democracy to the world
- Our use of force against those who oppose us is always justified, because we are the beacons of freedom and liberty in the world
- Our enemies are agents of irredeemable evil
- If we fail abroad, it is because we have not dedicated ourselves passionately enough to the cause of right
- Institutions such as courts and processes such as diplomacy are weak, and sometimes we must circumvent such feeble institutions in order to do good and defeat evil
are all elements of American civil religion, and they're not necessarily connected to a church or a religious organization. These are ideas it's hard not to accept on a subconscious level, even for people who don't explicitly identify as religious. For folks who do, these ideas can be
very powerful.
