Anyone who has followed any of my blogs or heard my rants
about the Pledge of Allegiance or patriotic worship services knows that I have
quite the love-hate relationship with the American Civil Religion. In the worst of times, it can be used to
perpetuate jingoistic, often xenophobic, nationalism. However, in the worst of times, it can also
be used to unite the country when faced with a major crisis. Unfortunately, under President Donald Trump,
this is not happening.
So, what exactly is the American Civil Religion? In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, “Let
me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.” The American Civil Religion is the lowest
common denominator faith that allows us, as Americans, to create a national
identity. It has its own priests, prophets,
sacred symbols, hymns, holidays, and scriptures. Furthermore, there are two types of civil
religion: the priestly and the prophetic.
The prophetic civil religion is my favorite! This is where non-conformists who push the envelope
and press this country to live up to its higher ideals spend all of their
time. The bad news for the prophets of
the civil religion is that their life expectancy is not terribly long: Bobby
Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. would have all been considered
prophets of the civil religion.
The priestly civil religion, on the other hand, is the
semi-official embodiment of the civil religion.
Its primary purpose is to unite the country in times of national
crisis. The president is the head of the
priestly civil religion, and in normal times, the priestly civil religion’s
most frequent expression comes at the end of presidential addresses when the
president says something like, “God bless you, and may God continue to pour out
His blessing on the United States of America.”
However, the priestly civil religion truly shines in the darkest of times. Turing times of trouble, times of tragedy, presidents become "consoler-in-chief." If it is the prophetic civil religion's job to afflict the comfortable, in times of national crisis, the president's job as the high priest of the civil religion is to comfort the afflicted.
Examples of the president using his office to unite the country during times of tragedy are legion and cut across partisan divides.
President Reagan after the Challenger explosion:
President Bush after 9/11:
President Obama after Newtown:
So ubiquitous is this function of the American presidency that it even shows up in fictional White Houses, including the Barlet administration in The West Wing:
All of these speeches have one thing in common: the presidents giving them were speaking at times of great tragedy or crisis in the United States. These speeches are not political, but spiritual. They are meant to bring Americans together, to reassure in times of uncertainty. Past presidents have excelled at this function of the presidency. President Trump? Eh, not so much. I have worried about the status of the priestly civil religion since his inauguration. The results have been mixed at best. During wildfires and hurricanes, President Trump's reaction has largely been predicated on whether the locations afflicted by such natural disasters supported him. Florida? Plenty of sympathy to muster. California and Puerto Rico? Maybe not. However, nowhere have President Trump's deficiencies in this area been quite so clearly evident as his response to our current national, indeed global, crisis: the coronavirus pandemic.
From the beginning, the president has struggled to provide moral leadership in this crisis. Focused more on the economy (at least as far as it affects his reelection prospects) and self-aggrandizement, President Trump has not shown much in the way of empathy or unity. He has occasionally said the right things in briefings, only to return to attacks on political opponents or the media on Twitter later in the day. However, nothing so starkly brought the president's inability to fulfill the role as high priest of the American Civil Religion into focus as today's Coronavirus Task Force briefing. Peter Alexander asked the softest of softball questions of the president. For any other president, the result would have been similar to a Sam Show at bat last season for Cowgirl Softball:
However, President Trump saw the fat curveball hanging up in the zone over the heart of the plate and...whiffed. Big time.
As my high school debate coach, and now colleague, Michael Patterson would say, "A trained monkey could do this." Any response would have been better than this response. Hell, a "No comment" would have been better. A normal president would have taken this opportunity to offer sympathies to those who have lost loved ones due to this virus, or even to offer condolences to Alexander who lost a colleague at NBC News today because of the virus. He might have highlighted the ways in which Americans are coming together to help each other. He could have used his platform offer his appreciation to the doctors, nurses, grocery stockers, and other ordinary Americans who are the heroes of this pandemic. Instead, President Trump lashed out at Alexander, calling him a nasty reporter and mocking NBC News at large. Y'all....A. Trained. Monkey. could have done this. President Trump could not.
One of the things I'm interested in regarding this presidency is the health of the American Civil Religion when it's all over. I fear the patient may be on life support right now. At the very least, the priestly civil religion is in very real trouble. While I have major misgivings about the civil religion, I can nevertheless say that I recognize its worth--when applied well. The civil religion can galvanize the nation, especially in times of hardship. Especially when the president succeeds in his role as the high priest of the civil religion, which is...usually? Until this president. While I believe the prophetic civil religion is alive and well during the Trump presidency, I'm unsure of its staying power without the priestly civil religion as its inevitable foil. One cannot truly exist without the other because they keep each other in check; it is the nature of things. Donald Trump cannot fulfill the expectations of the priestly civil religion. What's more, I'm not sure he even knows such expectations exist.
Right now, the nation needs a high priest more than ever. These are uncertain times. Coronavirus hospitalizations are testing a health care system already stretched too thin. Social distancing and self-quarantining are causing major sectors of the American economy to teeter on the brink of collapse. Churches, mosques, and synagogues have closed their doors. Schools are closed indefinitely. American society, American life as we know it, has disappeared--overnight, it seems. We NEED a national leader who can reassure the people that we're in this together, that all of this uncertainty won't last, that we will come out of this crisis stronger and more united than ever before. President Trump had the opportunity to do that today. Instead, he chose the lowest of low roads, becoming the anti-priest of the American Civil Religion. We may still achieve all of the things the high priest might have reassured of us. But if we do, it will be in spite of, rather than because of the influence of the president. And from the standpoint of the civil religion, that might be the real tragedy.
