Augustine of Hippo:
People are motivated by what they love, and the power of liturgy (or practices or rituals) is what cements and deepens that love.
Is it possible that an early Christian saint can give us any insight into why Evangelical Christians support Donald Trump so strongly? Or why people who voted for Republican Reagan, Dole, Bush, and Romney then voted for a person who reversed their policies on the issues Republican said they supported?
Guest Post author John Coster says he does. Augustine's insight was that liturgies aren't just incidental to faith. They are central to it. We bond with a suite of ideas and expectations, a brand. Brand manager expert Tony Farrell has had guest posts observing that a brand is a promise: it tells us what to expect. Coster observes that St. Augustine made the same observation. Liturgy is a promise. Traditions are maintained: costumes, words, incense, prayers. You do it "right" and that becomes sacred.
The Red Sox or Trail Blazers are still the team, even if personnel turn over. Republicans supported Trump even when he switched policies on trade, on immigration, on Russia, on alliances. Trump striding across the plaza to hold up a Bible wasn't about belief. It was branding.
Liturgy is branding.
John Coster's day job is managing the integration of a major cell phone provider's facilities, and has set up major facilities for both Microsoft and Amazon. He identifies as an Evangelical Christian. He supported Bernie Sanders in the primary election. He is participating in a graduate program studying philosophy, theology, and public policy. He has taken time off to go on missions of direct service to Africa and Asia. Coster reads this blog and sent me this:
Guest Post by John Coster
It may not fit the interest of your audience, but the study of Political Theology traces the historical tensions of how faithful Christians have viewed their roles in the societal and political settings in which they find themselves. It also can provide a helpful lens for both adherents, and those outside to gain a better understanding of those tensions.
It would be a mistake to lump all self-identified Evangelicals in a single camp, although some of them may constitute a significant voting bloc. How consistent are their beliefs? According to the 2020 survey by https://thestateoftheology.com/ (a mostly respected Evangelical group) a shocking 30% of Evangelicals surveyed disagreed or strongly disagreed that Jesus Christ is God. All other church disputes aside, this is the core tenet of historical Christianity for over 2,000 years. Jesus’ claim of being God was in fact what got him crucified. A Christian not believing in Christ’s deity is the epitome of incongruence. If the data are true it signifies a lack of historical and theological literacy of their faith. And of one of the consequences is that in their ignorance, is they also end up misrepresenting the Christian message (e.g. “it’s all about me”), or rationalizing choosing and even (protestants may flinch here) idolizing deeply flawed leaders because they think doing so furthers God’s purposes (as though God needs our help).
The 4th century Bishop Augustine of Hippo was writing to the Church, but he provides some interesting insights about human behavior in general. His premise is that people are more motivated by what they love, than what they think or believe. And the power of liturgy (or practices and rituals) is what cements and deepens that love. Maybe even be helping them be willing to die for it. If you think about it, this is true for almost anything – from military (basic training?), sports fandom, school spirit, media habits, parades, holiday gatherings (just list them) – we humans love ritual, and ritual reinforces the love. Augustine was onto something.
If he was, then what do we love and why? What do Evangelicals love, and what rituals or liturgies reinforce and deepen that love – especially when it comes to politics? Augustine may help again. While he wrote that Christians should engage as active societal members, he warned against becoming so assimilated that they forget the eternal person (Christ) in whom they placed their faith. But Augustine was a Catholic, and Protestants (where Evangelicals come from) were really the cultural founders of America, and they had different ideas about self-sufficiency, independence, and human destiny.
The Founding Fathers knew that for the American Revolution to succeed, they needed the people’s hearts, so they spun the message of Independence as a spiritual mandate. It was preached from churches all over the Colonies that this was God’s Will. So Christian Nationalism was born and has been the symbiotic relationship between God and Country ever since. I think this explains why some people get so enraged if you do or say anything critical of American Patriotism (or their version of it). It is the ultimate throw down challenge
I especially like this blog because Peter tries to unpack the complexities of the political landscape to make sense of it. But if Augustine was right, it won’t be clever or insightful dialog and exchanging ideas that changes the thinking or beliefs of any of us. Not to be dismal, but if this is true, then the liturgies of our camps are now so well entrenched that finding common ground for what a flourishing future for our nation looks like is not encouraging.
2 comments:
I have felt for many years that one thing that might pull us together is something like a new religion.
Doris Lessing once said that Christianity held the mind of The West in its grip for 1,000 years, and when that grip dissipated, it left a religion-shaped hole in that mind which has since been filled by opportunistic beliefs systems that more or less matched the shape of that hole.
Marxism/Communism, for instance.
The 60s was an actual religion which came to us in the form of music and psychedelic drugs. Ram Dass once said that the 60s were such a secular era that LSD and the other psychedelics were the only way that God could manifest to us. Read Monday Night Class by Stephen Gaskin for an extensive description of this. Grateful Dead concerts were basically “church.” Bill Graham once said that “The Dead aren’t the best at what they do, they’re the only ones who do what they do.“ The 60s swept up a lot of us, but clearly not the whole country.
Wokeness is a new religion. Just look at the way they persecute heretics, for instance. It reminds me of The Inquisition. Wokeness is too divisive to bring the country together.
If we’re lucky, maybe a newer unifying religion will come along and fill that hole.
That's all very nice, but the issue is that evangelical religion is sticking its nose into politics, and that's a no-no. Much has been said about this, mainly scholars lament the specious connection between American exceptionalism and godliness as not the intent of the founders. (By the way, the term "Founding Fathers" is annoyingly patriarchal and should be avoided)
This is not new.
In 1861 the US Treasury adopted "In God We Trust" on coins. Subsequently in 1956 the Congress voted to make it the nation's motto instead of "E Pluribus Unum"
Why? Churches are now part of the corporate state and need political influence to keep their tax free status. Pandering to religion is accepted by both parties; admitting atheism, even doubt, would be political suicide.
Religion, in particular evangelicals, is at the center of efforts to restrict rights and impose itself on the rest of society, as exemplified by the continuing attack on women's reproductive autonomy and inserting dogma into curriculums.
Despite this the society is becoming more secular. Unfortunately those who remain are fanatical, and increasingly paranoid.
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