What, then, unites us?<\/p>\n
Belief in the USA, answers Lear \u201d\u201d belief in a Constitution that has brilliantly stood the test of time; belief in shared history, holidays and rituals; belief in the Founding Fathers and the founding documents.<\/p>\n
Lear is describing what academics call “civil religion” \u201d\u201d a national creed of sorts that unites people across sectarian, ethnic and other divides, and calls them to revere the nation’s ideals with something approaching “religious” intensity.<\/p>\n
Like many decent things, civil religion can have a downside. Some of the past century’s ugliest chapters of history had civil religion underpinnings, from Hitler’s and Pol Pot’s genocides to Mussolini’s fascism. Worship of the state can be disastrous theologically as well as politically, a clear violation of the admonition against false gods emblazoned in the Ten Commandments.<\/p>\n
Is Lear dipping our toes into troublesome waters with his Born Again American campaign? At least a few think so.<\/p>\n