General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe American state-religion is not Christianity. It is Nationalism.
In many ways Christianity has been dressed up to meet the needs of Nationalism, but Nationalism supercedes it. In America Christianity has to pay homage to Nationalism, not the other way around. That is why Pat Robertson is acceptable, but Fred Pheps or Jeremiah Wright are not.
American Nationalism has all the markings of a religion. It has its mythology, its "chosen people", its shrines, its saints (founding fathers, former presidents etc.), its martyrs (mostly soldiers) and its anti-blasphemy laws (don't believe me? try dancing at the Jefferson memorial). It absolves a person of any personal responsibility for crimes (torture, mass murder) committed in service of its deity (country).
It also ruthlessly punishes apostasy (ask Chelsea Manning).
olddots
(10,237 posts)Naw that would be too logical and scientific .
Ramses
(721 posts)but yes you are right. We probably wont and that will be to our detriment.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)religion of Americanism. I read it in a sociology class and he laid it out very clearly. I agree. We worship America - we are exceptional you know.
marym625
(17,997 posts)We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition
jwirr
(39,215 posts)marym625
(17,997 posts)Andrew Greeley maybe? Loved him and he was a novelist
jwirr
(39,215 posts)than the book we used.
marym625
(17,997 posts)I knew who you meant. Loved him. His books were in my house all the time. A progressive, Chicago priest of irish decent, like the trifecta in my mom's book
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)State Religon.
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)above all others.
Back in the Middle Ages, the biggest structures in a village, town or city were the churches. Today, it's pretty much the banks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammon
Pooka Fey
(3,496 posts)deutsey
(20,166 posts)Ramses
(721 posts)MisterP
(23,730 posts)it becomes a "religion" with itself as deity, a set of propositions accessible to everyone from Lincoln to Bush; it serves politics before it serves theology--it serves the vision of US history presented in The American Pageant or Golden Books, Great Men and the decent Americans behind them on one long upward climb, overcoming our flaws and forever increasing our freedom; even the mad Randbot economic arsonists we call Chicago Boys have had to gussy up their inhuman propositions in tricolor bunting with old "America's back" Ronnie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_civil_religion
AZ Progressive
(3,411 posts)Otherwise we wouldn't be having all this offshoring.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)lump them all together mighty easily.
pampango
(24,692 posts)The racist movement is comprised of white supremacy groups such as the KKK, neoNazi groups such as the National Alliance and Skinheads groups such as the Hammerskin Nation. The groups comprising this movement are interested in preserving or restoring what they perceive as the appropriate and natural racial and cultural hierarchy, by enforcing social and political control over non-Aryans/nonwhites such as African Americans, Jews, and various immigrant communities. Therefore, their ideological foundations are based mainly on ideas of racism, segregation, xenophobia, and nativism (rejection of foreign norms and practices).
The antifederalist rationale is multifaceted, and includes the beliefs that the American political system and its proxies were hijacked by external forces interested in promoting a New World Order (NWO) in which the United States will be absorbed into the United Nations or another version of global government.
Lastly, the fundamentalist stream, which includes mainly Christian Identity groups such as the Aryan Nations, fuse religious fundamentalism with traditional white supremacy and racial tendencies, thus promoting ideas of nativism, exclusionism, and racial superiority through a unique interpretation of religious texts that focuses on division of humanity according to primordial attributes. More specifically, these groups maintain that a correct interpretation of the holy texts reveals that it is not the people of Israel but the Anglo-Saxons who are the chosen people and therefore assert their natural superior status.
If there is one ideological doctrine about which there is almost full consensus regarding its importance for understanding the far-right worldview, it is that of nationalism. Historically, the literature on nationalism has taken diverse directions and is extremely rich, but in its varying guises it usually refers to the association between ethnic, cultural and/or linguistic identity and political expression, or more simply put, the convergence of a cultural framework with a political entity.
In the context of the far-right worldview, nationalism takes an extreme form of full convergence between one polity or territory and one ethnic or national collective. Two elements are required for the fulfillment of this version of the nationalist doctrine. The first is that of internal homogenization, i.e., the aspiration that all residents or citizens of the polity will share the same national origin and ethnic characteristics. The second is the element of external exclusiveness, the aspiration that all individuals belonging to a specific national or ethnic group will reside in the homeland.
http://www.ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ChallengersFromtheSidelines.pdf
Burma Jones
(11,760 posts)People asked, "What Religion are you going to raise your kids?"
To which I replied, "the real religion in the USA, American Materialism"
Our Troops are not defending our shores, they're defending our "way of life"...........And that's from their own mouths
We're basically raising our children Jewish/Quaker/Presbyterian with a serious disdain for commercial speech, jingoism and stupid.
branford
(4,462 posts)I think unions and voting Democrat might still Kosher under Reform.
Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)cpwm17
(3,829 posts)His hatred of folks with different religious beliefs than he has is just more of his tribalism.
He supports war against the proper victims. BEFORE the Iraq War he said he didn't care if we went in, and he said that to his liberal audience that was against the war.
delrem
(9,688 posts)cpwm17
(3,829 posts)They both usually requires a certain amount of brain washing from an early age. Nationalism is much more dangerous, though.
marym625
(17,997 posts)daleo
(21,317 posts)Is a good definition for fascism, actually.
jimlup
(7,968 posts)TheKentuckian
(25,026 posts)snake oil to sell the rubes. The ones running the show would use the constitution as a cum rag, then toilet paper, then pine a birdcage with it.
They eagerly will poison the waters and salt the earth for a buck or two.
They would enslave or kill the population without a thought.
They couldn't give a shit about this nation in any way even if they ate a whole pallet of Ex-Lax.
ZX86
(1,428 posts)Before I report you to the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
gopiscrap
(23,761 posts)ChosenUnWisely
(588 posts)and has been for a very long time now.
Folks just don't want to admit the truth that America is a fascist nation.
But that is just my opinion based upon traveling to many countries all over the world, serving in the US military and looking critically at America from the outside.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Exultant Democracy
(6,594 posts)We are a great nation because god said so, which means whatever we do is great.
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)capitalism, the fiction of free markets, unfettered greed.