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Contesting Civil Religion: Religious Responses to American Patriotic Nationalism, 1919-1929

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2018

Michael Lienesch
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Abstract

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Since the publication fifty years ago of Robert N. Bellah's classic article “Civil Religion in America,” the concept of civil religion has provoked continuing debates among scholars who study religion and American culture. This essay is a contribution to these debates and an attempt to move beyond them. It considers American civil religion as theory and as practice, examining its meaning through an investigation of how it functioned at an important and too little studied point in its past. Arguing that civil religion is both a cultural and a political construct, it shows how at the close of World War I, a loosely linked network of civic, military, and patriotic groups came together to create a sacralized form of patriotic nationalism and incorporate it into the American civil religious tradition. Contending that the relationships between civil religion and more conventional forms of organized religion are often close and at times contentious, it examines how religious bodies of the time were instrumental in supporting this process and intractable in resisting it. Proposing that civil religion can come in a variety of sometimes competing versions, it discusses the conflicts over civil religious practices that ensued within American churches during the next decade, relying on reports from the time to describe how these conflicts divided church leaders, denominations, and congregations. Finally, working from the premise that civil religious beliefs, symbols, and rituals are invariably involved in the political process, it examines how they became increasingly used for partisan purposes over the course of the decade, raising issues about the relationship between church and state. In closing, it comments on the enduring character of civil religion, and speculates on its continuing importance for American religion and politics.

Keywords

Robert N. Bellahcivil religionpatriotic nationalismUnited States history
Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , Winter 2018 , pp. 92 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 1967

References

Notes

For their comments and encouragement on earlier versions of this work, the author wishes to thank Kevin M. Kruse, Melissa Matthes, Andrew R. Murphy, David Sehat, Joel Winkelman, Molly Worthen, and the anonymous referees at Religion and American Culture.

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37. Although a Christian term, in this essay “church” is intended to include institutions and practices from other religious traditions as well.

38. Bellah, “Civil Religion in America,” 1.

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45. See “Many to Preach on Patriotism,” Los Angeles Times, February 20, 1921. See also “Prepare for Flag Day,” Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1923; “Asked to Observe Constitution Day,” Washington Post, August 7, 1921; and “Christian Church Fittingly Observes Independence Day,” Atlanta Constitution, July 18, 1926.

46. “An Inspiring Text,” 12. For background on the American Legion's National Americanism Commission and its programs, see Pencak, William, For God and Country: The American Legion, 1919-1941 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1989), 3–23.Google Scholar Working together with the National Education Association and the United States Bureau of Education, the Legion also asked all religious groups to recognize the Sunday of Constitution Week as God and Country Day, with sermons “dealing with education and its relation to the service of God and country.” “Special Sermons Start Local Education Week,” Washington Post, November 19, 1923.

47. Cited from the Wheeling Intelligencer, June 20, 1922, in Hennen, John C., The Americanization of West Virginia: Creating a Modern Industrial State, 1916-1925 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996), 136.Google Scholar

48. Annual Report of the Allied Patriotic Socieites, Inc., December 5, 1923, 3; Dwight Braham to Governors of the American States, January 16, 1923, both in American Civil Liberties Records and Publications (hereafter ACLU Records), Subgroup 1, Reel 52, Vol. 331.

49. See “To Plead for Patriotism,” Los Angeles Times, February 17, 1923. See also “Present Flag to Church,” New York Times, April 15, 1929.

50. “Events of State Societies,” Official Bulletin of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution 18 (1923): 49.

51. “Massing of Colors Brightens Fifth Avenue,” New York Times, November 7, 1927.

52. “Jefferson—Franklin—Adams: These Men Who Drew Up the Declaration of Independence Were Unitarians,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1926.

53. “Sermons of Patriotism Resound from Pulpits,” Los Angeles Times, May 28, 1928. See also “Will Praise Constitution,” Los Angeles Times, September 15, 1923.

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60. “The Faith of the Founders,” New York Times, July 5, 1926.

61. “Churches Observe Constitution Day,” (Baltimore) Sun, September 17, 1923.

62. “Revive Prayer by Washington,” Los Angeles Times, February 20, 1926.

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75. “Says Memorial Day Arouses War Spirit,” New York Times, May 27, 1929.

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81. See “Peace Sunday, June 5, To Be Observed Here,” (Baltimore) Sun, May 21, 1921; “Churches to Observe Disarmament Sunday,” (Baltimore) Sun, June 4, 1921; and Pierce, , Citizens' Organizations, 147-49.Google Scholar

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86. See “Churchgoers Hear Sermons on Labor,” New York Times, September 5, 1921; “Pleas for Child Welfare Heard,” (Louisville) Courier-journal, January 30, 1922; “Labor Sunday Held in Churches of City,” (Baltimore) Sun, September 3, 1923; “To Discuss Child Labor,” New York Times, January 25, 1925; “Child Labor Ban Urged in Pulpits,” New York Times, January 26, 1925; and “Labor Sunday Observance,” Federal Council Bulletin 8 (September-October 1925): 28.

87. See “'Anti-Lynching Day’ Is Set by Churches,” New York Times, October 29, 1927.

88. “Eloquent Tribute Paid to Our Flag,” Los Angeles Times, June 18, 1923.

89. “Plans New Bible of and for America,” New York Times, February 28, 1924. See also “St. Mark's Reveres Stars and Stripes,” New York Times, February 25, 1924.

90. See Gorski, , American Covenant, 202-22.Google Scholar See also Murphy, “Civil Religion for a Diverse Polity,” 226.

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93. “Calls Declaration Miracle of God,” New York Times, July 5, 1926; “Holmes Asks New Declaration to Defy Capitalistic Control,” New York Times, July 5, 1926.

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96. “Several Pastors to Preach on Flag and Father's Days,” Washington Post, June 15, 1929.

97. “Thousands Honor Nation's Founders,” New York Times, April 20, 1925.

98. “Fear Defense Day If It Glorifies War,” New York Times, September 8, 1924. See also “Churches against Mobilization Day,” Christian Century 41 (July 3, 1924): 862; “More Protests against Mobilization Day,” Christian Century 41 (August 7, 1924): 1023; “Church Press against Mobilization Day,” Christian Century 41 (August 7, 1924): 1028; and “The Trend of Events,” Herald of Gospel Liberty 116 (September 25, 1924): 5.

99. “An Affront to the Church and to the Nation,” Herald of Gospel Liberty 117 (May 21, 1925): 4.

100. “A Fourth of July Call to Sanity,” Herald of Gospel Liberty 119 (June 30, 1927): 4. See “Veterans Protest Pacifist Memorial,” New York Times, October 17, 1926. See also “Armistice Day: Contrasts and Contradictions,” Federal Council Bulletin 10 (December 1927): 3-4.

101. “Americanism Recipe Is Given,” (Louisville) Courier-Journal, April 29, 1920.

102. See “Pinks Rebuked by Evanston Rally,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 31, 1924. See also “No Insult to Flag, View of N.U. Faculty,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 25, 1924.

103. “Legion Hits P.T.A. and Church Body,” Atlanta Constitution, November 23, 1926. In 1928, American Legion officials also brought pressure on churches in the South to cancel speaking engagements by the pacifist Sherwood Eddy of the YMCA. See “Legion Will Try to Cut Pacifists’ Audiences in U.S.,” Atlanta Constitution, January 30, 1928. As late as 1929, the organization was requesting public investigation of organizations with pacifist leanings, including the Federal Council of Churches. See “Legion Demands Pacifist Inquiry,” New York Times, October 3, 1929.

104. “Bosheviki Bore into the Churches,” New York Times, February 16, 1921; “Admits Attack on Interchurch Drive,” New York Times, July 15, 1920. On Civic Federation claims of socialism in the churches, see “Socialism or Social Reform in the Church—Which?” National Civic Federation Review 5 (January 1, 1920): 15-20; Harre, T. Everett, “Revolution in U.S. Preached to Methodist Clergy,” National Civic Federation Review 5 (July 10, 1920): 11, 20–21 Google Scholar; and “Purifying Politics—A Field for the Churches,” National Civic Federation Review 5 (November 25, 1920): 14–15, 23-24. See also correspondence between Conde B. Pallen of the National Civic Federation and John A. Ryan, Director of the Department of Social Action of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, in ACLU Records, Subgroup 1, Reel 52, Vol. 331.

105. See Nielson, , Un-American Womanhood, 124-30.Google Scholar The entire list is printed in ibid, 143-57. See also Delegard, , Battling Miss Bolsheviki, 159-71.Google Scholar

106. “Calls on Columbia to Oust Professor Hayes,” New York Times, January 17, 1927. In an earlier speech to the Committee on Militarism in Education, Hayes had decried the development of a “religion of nationalism” with its “shrines, images, icons, and relics,” referring to the Liberty Bell and the “cult for worship of the flag, with very curious liturgical forms.” See “Prof. Hayes Derides Patriotic Cults,” New York Times, January 16, 1927. See also “Misquoted, Says Hayes,” New York Times, January 18, 1927. See also Hayes, Carlton J. H., Essays on Nationalism (New York: Macmillan Co., 1928), 107-20.Google Scholar

107. See Beale, , Are American Teachers Free? 73 Google Scholar; Pierce, Civic Attitudes in American School Textbooks, TAX; and Ellis, , To the Flag, 86–89.Google Scholar

108. “Flays Churches for Armistice Day Message,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 9, 1926. See also “Legion Chaplain Condemns Church Attitude to War,” Atlanta Constitution, August 6, 1924.

109. “Ministers Favor Preparedness; Decry Pacifism,” Christian Century 43 (May 27, 1926): 690.

110. “People Called to Stand for True Americanism,” Los Angeles Times, January 21, 1924.

111. “Minister Calls Church Council Foe of Religion,” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 25, 1927.

112. “Unpatriotic Intelligentsia,” Moody Monthly 28 (July 1928): 519. The article was reprinted from the Better America Federation Bulletin. On patriotic nationalism in early fundamentalism, see Marsden, George M., Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991), 50–53.Google Scholar

113. Adams, Frank D., “Dedicating the Living,” Universalist Leader 25 (May 27, 1922): 5.Google Scholar

114. Moldenhawer, J. V., “Patriots and Christians,” Federal Council Bulletin 12 (February 1929): 7–9.Google Scholar See also the comments of Episcopal Bishop Ashton Oldham in “Kellogg Lauds Church World Peace Efforts,” Washington Post, October 22, 1928.

115. See, for example, “Methodist Conferences for Social Advance,” Christian Century 44 (December 22, 1927): 1530.

116. “Who Are the True Patriots?” Federal Council Bulletin 11 (May 1928): 24.

117. “Fosdick Sees Honor in D.A.R. Blacklist,” Neiv York Times, May 28, 1928. See also “Baptists Denounce Blacklist Issued in ‘Guise of Patriotism,’” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 19, 1928.

118. “Urges New Society to Offset D.A.R.,” New York Times, April 23, 1928.

119. See, for example, “Methodist Church Body Votes Refusal to Aid War,” Washington Post, May 15, 1924; “Defense Day Is Deplored in M. E. Vote,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 4, 1924; “Lutheran Church for Just War,” New York Times, October 28, 1924; “World Court Urged by Church Council; All Wars Decried,” Washington Post, October 25, 1925; “Congregationalism Votes to Excommunicate War; Consolidate Boards,” Christian Century 42 (November 5, 1925): 1385.

120. “Bishop Opposes Singing National Airs in Church,” (Louisville) Courier-Journal, October 12, 1919. See also “Fears Patriot Songs Lack in Sacred Themes,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 12, 1919.

121. “Flag Is Not above the Cross, He Says,” New York Times, April 12, 1926. See also “Cross and Flag,” Atlanta Constitution, May 17, 1926.

122. See “The Episcopal Convention,” Washington Post, October 23, 1928. See also “Letters to Editor,” Washington Post, October 21, 1928; “Bishops Adopt July 4 Service,” New York Times, October 17, 1928; “Both Houses Adopt July 4th Prayer,” Washington Post, October 17, 1928.

123. “Bishop Freeman on the Symbolism of the American Flag,” Washington Post, November 12, 1929. See “A Bishop's Insult,” Washington Post, November 8, 1929.

124. “Pacifism Is Anarchy,” Washington Post, May 10, 1925. See also “Pastor and Flock in Flag Dispute Agree to Part,” Reading Times, April 30, 1925.

125. Hammond, Philip E., “Religion and the ‘Informing’ of Culture,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 1 (1963): 254.Google Scholar

126. See Wimberley, Ronald C. and Christenson, James A., “Civil Religion and Church and State,” Sociological Quarterly 21 (1980): 38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

127. See Wimberley, Ronald C., “Civil Religion and the Choice for President,” Social Forces 59 (1980): 44–61 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Wimberley, Ronald C. and Christenson, James A., “Civil Religion, Social Indicators, and Public Policy,” Social Indicators Research 10 (1982): 211-13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

128. See, for example, Chapp, Christopher B., Religious Rhetoric and American Politics: The Endurance of Civil Religion in Electoral Campaigns (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Manis, Andrew Michael, Southern Civil Religions in Conflict: Civil Rights and the Culture Wars (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2002)Google Scholar; and McDougall, Walter A., The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy: How America's Civil Religion Betrayed the National Interest (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2016).Google Scholar

129. Porterfield, “Forum: American Civil Religion Revisited,” 11.

130. “Pertinent Pulpit Paragraphs,” Los Angeles Times, June 21, 1920.

131. “Minister's Speech for Harding Stirs Methodist Pastors,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 15, 1920. For other examples, see “Dr. Wise Advocates Coolidge's Defeat,” New York Times, November 3, 1924; “Memorial Services Held in Churches,” New York Times, November 12, 1927; and “Coolidge Navy Plan Assailed by Pastor,” New York Times, November 19, 1928.

132. See “The Church and the Voter,” Homiletic Review 88 (June 1924): 456. See also Gidlow, Liette, The Big Vote: Gender, Consumer Culture, and the Politics of Exclusion, 1890s-1920s (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), 51–52.Google Scholar

133. “Pastors Urged To Get Voters to the Polls,” Washington Post, October 4, 1924. See Tippy, Worth M., “Get Out the Vote!” Federal Council Bulletin 7 (September-October 1924): 12.Google Scholar

134. “The Church and the Voter,” Homiletic Review 88 (July 1924): 6. Church members were also asked to take a “Voter's Pledge” promising to register and vote. See “The Church and the Voter,” Homiletic Review 88 (October 1924): 264-69. The Christian Herald, an interdenominational publication, advised churches to set aside a portion of their service on Sunday, October 26, for a discussion of the duties of citizenship. It also offered the church in each state with the highest percentage of voters a trip to the inauguration and “a handsome pulpit Bible, suitably inscribed.” “Getting Out the Christian Vote,” Christian Herald 47 (September 27, 1924): 787.

135. “Predicts Passing of Slacker Voters,” New York Times, November 9, 1924.

136. On the partisan character of the campaign, see McGerr, Michael E., The Decline of Popular Politics: The American North, 1865-1928 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 195-97.Google Scholar

137. “Pledged—2,000,000 Ballots in Homiletic's Campaign,” Homiletic Review 88 (November 1924): 358.

138. See “Dry Convention Closes,” New York Times, September 20, 1920. Preaching on Second Constitution Day, in 1926, to delegates of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union meeting in Los Angeles, Methodist pastor E. E. Helms described those advocating proposals to permit the states to hold referenda allowing the sale of alcohol as “traitors to our Constitution.” (“While true Americans sing ‘The Star Spangled Banner,’” Helms told his audience, “traitors to our Constitution are singing ‘How Dry I Am!’”) “Opposers of Nation's Law Denounced as Traitors,” Los Angeles Times, September 27, 1926.

139. “Plea by Manning for the Dry Laws,” New York Times, February 23, 1925. See also “Law Breakers Held Unfit to Honor Dead,” New York Times, May 28, 1928; “Today's Programs in City's Churches,” New York Times, June 30, 1929.

140. “Drys Will Appeal to Church Members,” New York Times, October 1, 1928.

141. “Loyalty Crusade Planned,” Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1929. See also “Join in Church Plea for Respect for Law,” New York Times, July 1, 1929.

142. “Ruth Bryan Owen Urges Dry Pledge as Ritual of Flag,” Washington Post, April 15, 1929.

143. See “Ku Klux Call at Church on Bid of Pastor,” (Baltimore) Sun, April 17, 1922; “Ku Klux Enter Church Tent; Have Paper Read,” (Louisville) Courier-Journal, September 24, 1922; “Ku Klux Klansmen Invade a Church,” New York Times, October 23, 1922; “Church Split by Act of Ku Klux,” (Louisville) Courier-Journal, November 19, 1922; “Ku Klux Klansmen March into Church,” New York Times, December 19, 1922. For pastors who opposed Klan participation in services, see “Preacher Says Klan Can't Hide Sins in Church,” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 9, 1923, and “Pastor Berates Klansmen on False Americanism,” Chicago Defender, September 19, 1925. On the anti-Smith campaign in the South, see Bailey, Kenneth K., Southern White Protestantism in the Twentieth Century (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), 92–110.Google Scholar

144. Cited in Isidor Wise, “‘Over the Devil's Back,’” American Israelite, August 26, 1926.

145. “Pastor Holds It Duty of Pulpit to Talk Politics,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1928.

146. “All Saloons in World to Go If Hoover Wins, Says Sunday,” Washington Post, November 3, 1928.

147. “Nation to Observe Flag Day June 14,” New York Times, June 5, 1927.

148. “Leaders in 3 Faiths Urge Clergy to Aid in Flag Observance,” Washington Post, May 29, 1927.

149. See “Washington Urged Religious Concord,” New York Times, February 20, 1928; “Extol Washington in Diverse Tribute,” New York Times, February 23, 1928; and “Smith and Hoover Praised by Robbins,” New York Times, July 2, 1928.

150. “Deputies Name Dr. Phillips as Head of House,” Washington Post, October 11, 1928. See also “Ministers Attack Campaign Bigotry,” Nezv York Times, October 8, 1928.

151. “Dr. Wise Sees Smith Hit by ‘Unholy War,’” New York Times, October 1, 1928.

152. “Ceremonies in City Honor Columbus,” New York Times, October 12, 1928.

153. “Van Dyke Assails Campaign Bigotry,” New York Times, September 2, 1928.

154. See Charles Palmerston Anderson, “The Church and the World,” Federal Council Bulletin 11 (November 1928): 5. On the consequences of the campaign for southern white Protestant churches, see Bailey, , Southern White Protestantism, 107-10.Google Scholar

155. See “Vast Crowd Honors Flag at Ceremony,” Washington Post, June 10, 1929.

156. “Hoover Inspires Sermons,” Los Angeles Times, March 2, 1929.

157. “Says Memorial Day Arouses War Spirit.” See also “Obedience to Law Is Urged by Bishop,” Washington Post, May 27, 1929.

158. “Roosevelt Assails Militaristic Patriot,” New York Times, November 11, 1929. See also Isetti, Ronald, “The Moneychangers of the Temple: FDR, American Civil Religion, and the New Deal,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 26 (1966): 678-93.Google Scholar

159. Bellah, , The Broken Covenant, 142.Google Scholar See also Bellah, “Civil Religion in America,” 16-19.

160. See Williams and Fuist, “Civil Religion and National Politics in a Neoliberal Era,” 932-35.

161. Roof, “American Presidential Rhetoric from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush,” 300.

162. On the national anthem, motto, and pledge, see Pierard, Richard V., “The Role of Civil Religion in American Society,” in Oxford Handbook of Church and State in the United States, ed. Davis, Derek K. (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2010), 490-92.Google Scholar See also Kruse, Kevin M., One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America (New York: Basic Books, 2015).Google Scholar On new memorials, see Gardella, Peter, American Civil Religion: What Americans Hold Sacred (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 323-44.Google Scholar On civil religion and presidential rhetoric, see Domke, David and Coe, Kevin, The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 61–64.Google Scholar

163. See Angrosino, “Civil Religion Redux,” 260-65.

164. See Kruse, , One Nation under God, 165–294.Google Scholar

165. See Haberski, , God and War, 243-54.Google Scholar

166. See Murphy, Andrew R. and Gutterman, David S., Political Religion and Religious Politics: Navigating Identities in the United States (New York: Routledge, 2016), 22–49 Google Scholar; Webster, Gerald R. and Leib, Jonathan I., “Religion, Murder, and the Confederate Battle Flag in South Carolina,” Southeastern Geographer 56 (2016): 29–37 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Arthur Remillard, “Protests, Pigskin, and Patriotism: Colin Kaepernick and America's Civil Religions,” OUPblog, September 17, 2016, http://blog.oup.com/2016/09/patriotismkaepernick-america-religions/.