Our Sacred Nation

A sermon delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation (Blacksburg, Virginia), July 10, 2005, by Carter Turner, who is in the Philosophy and Religious Studies department at Radford University — as well as a member of the Congregation.

On Thursday September 13, 2001, two days after terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson discussed the events on Robertson’s The 700 Club. Falwell began by saying that God had protected America “wonderfully” for 225 years, but that “what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact … God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.”

Falwell continued:

The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen.”

Falwell’s comments unleashed a firestorm of criticism including a public rebuke from his friends in the White House. Several days later, Falwell apologized saying such labeling was inappropriate during this time of crises and that his statements were “insensitive, uncalled for at the time, and unnecessary.” Most of the criticism directed at Falwell emphasized the similarities between his narrow views of the world and the narrow views of the Islamic radicals. What did not get discussed adequately, due in part to the fact that Americans were still reeling from 9/11, was Falwell’s basic assumption – that nationalism is God’s modus operandi.

One might rightly ask, if abortion is a sin in the eyes of God, why doesn’t God simply punish those individuals who have or perform abortions? If God abhors homosexuality, as Falwell contends, why doesn’t God have terrorists fly planes into gay pride parades rather than into the heart of America’s financial and military districts? Why does God arbitrarily punish anyone who happens to live, work, or vacation on the soil where those “sins” occurred? Why would God suddenly lift His protection of an entire land mass? Why would God bless the USA in the first place?

The book of Job expresses one of the most important tenets of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions; never question the mind of God. Humans should never pretend to know what angers God or what God’s intentions might be. When Falwell apologized for his post-9/11 comments, this was the rule he most regretted breaking. But Falwell was correct, at least in his own mind, to assume that God sees the world as a collection of groups. The Hebrew Scriptures, which are the foundation of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, clearly describe a God concerned with nations rather than individuals. The book of Genesis reports that God said to Abraham, “and I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” This is, as Bishop John Shelby Spong stated to an audience at Virginia Tech Thursday night, a “tribal” God. Falwell implied that Americans have been God’s tribe for the past 225 years, but are dangerously close to losing this divine designation. Falwell’s implication went largely unnoticed in this country because many Americans agree with him. And it’s not surprising that they do. America’s special relationship to God is woven into our national story.

Myths are stories that shape people’s self-understanding. The word “myth,” despite how we often think of the term, does not necessarily mean something is false. A story about the past is a myth if the story continues to feed identity. All civilizations are rooted in myths - many of which, according to Joseph Campbell, share the same basic elements. And it’s impossible to live in a civilization without absorbing some rudiments of the civilization’s myths. Myths bind people together. They tell us who we are, and what we should be doing. We keep myths alive because they serve this much-needed function, which explains the urgency with which some people defend the Pledge of Allegiance, or argue for an amendment protecting the flag. The flag, more than anything else in our country, symbolizes the myth of the United States.

I contend there are essentially three parts to the American myth. First, are the truths – those principles that we unequivocally believe are true. We believe that all humans are created equally. We believe that all humans have rights – including the right to own property and to pursue happiness. And we believe that the best and most natural way to protect these rights is to maintain some form of representative government. The Abolitionists argued during the first half of the 19^th century that slavery was simply incompatible with our national truths. Thus the myth changed our behavior, and became even more central to our national identity in the process. Martin Luther King Jr. also appealed to the American myth for racial equality. “One day the South will know,” he wrote from a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, “that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”

The second part of our myth deals with the consequences of holding these truths. The myth reflects an unwavering optimism that a country based on the principles of equality, rights, and democracy will thrive in ways previously unknown to humanity. We believe we can overcome all barriers, eventually solve all problems, and raise the quality of human life to unfathomable levels.  “As I stand here today,” said FDR in his fourth inaugural address, “having taken the solemn oath of office in the presence of my fellow countrymen—in the presence of our God—I know that it is America's purpose that we shall not fail.”

The third component of the myth, the heart of my talk this morning, is the link between God’s purposes and those of the nation. The myth claims that the American experiment is being carried out with God’s sole approval and protection. Our national truths are not just true for our nation, or for the rest of the world. They are true for God himself. Therefore, America is the new Israel – Americans, the new chosen people. We are the city upon the hill, as Reagan liked to remind us, for the entire world to model.

Earnest Tuveson argues that over the past two thousand years, successive nations have understood themselves to be God’s favorite people, chosen to usher in the return of Christ. “Israel” has migrated westward: from the Near East to Greece, from Greece to Rome, from Rome to Western Europe, and finally from Western Europe to America. When the Reverend John Winthrop arrived on the shores of New England in 1630, he delivered a sermon in which he established a new covenant with God and the land. “Thus stands the cause between God and us,” said Winthrop. “We are entered into covenant with him for this work, we have taken out a commission, the Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles, we have professed to enterprise the actions upon these and these ends, we have hereupon besought him of favor and blessing … for we must consider that we shall be a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause the prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.”

It may seem to you that Winthrop’s covenant was just the rambling of an ocean weary traveler. Yet 335 years later, Lyndon Baines Johnson claimed that America is bound by Winthrop’s covenant to remain involved in Vietnam. In his 1965 inaugural address, Johnson stated:

They came here—the exile and the stranger, brave but frightened—to find a place where a man could be his own man. They made a covenant with this land. Conceived in justice, written in liberty, bound in union, it was meant one day to inspire the hopes of all mankind; and it binds us still. If we keep its terms, we shall flourish … The American covenant called on us to help show the way for the liberation of man. And that is today our goal … Change has brought new meaning to that old mission. We can never again stand aside, prideful in isolation. Terrific dangers and troubles that we once called "foreign" now constantly live among us. If American lives must end, and American treasure be spilled, in countries we barely know, that is the price that change has demanded of conviction and of our enduring covenant … If we fail now, we shall have forgotten in abundance what we learned in hardship: that democracy rests on faith, that freedom asks more than it gives, and that the judgment of God is harshest on those who are most favored.

Nearly every American President has linked the nation’s goals with those of God. I include here several examples, all from inaugural addresses, that I think are quite telling.

“No people,” said George Washington in 1789, “can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”

Ulysses S. Grant’s conviction that America is an agent of God is truly unmatched. Writing during a time of intense debate over American expansionism, Grant’s inaugural address included his position on the matter. “I say here… that I do not share in the apprehension held by many as to the danger of governments becoming weakened and destroyed by reason of their extension of territory … Rather do I believe that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time, to become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and navies will be no longer required.” I have no doubts which language Grant expected the world to be speaking.

“Above all,” stated Grover Cleveland in 1893, “I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people, and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek His powerful aid.”

William McKinley in 1897: “Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps.”

Warren G. Harding, 1921: “The world upheaval has added heavily to our tasks. But with the realization comes the surge of high resolve, and there is reassurance in belief in the God-given destiny of our Republic.”

John F. Kennedy, 1961: “The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God ….With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

Ronald Reagan, 1981, as only the Great Communicator could get away with: “It is the American sound. It is hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, daring, decent, and fair. That's our heritage; that is our song. We sing it still. For all our problems, our differences, we are together as of old, as we raise our voices to the God who is the Author of this most tender music. And may He continue to hold us close as we fill the world with our sound—sound in unity, affection, and love—one people under God, dedicated to the dream of freedom that He has placed in the human heart, called upon now to pass that dream on to a waiting and hopeful world.

And George W. Bush, 2001: “Through much of the last century, America’s faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations. Our democratic faith is more than the creed of our country, it is the inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal we carry but do not own, a trust we bear and pass along. And even after nearly 225 years, we have a long way yet to travel … We are not this story’s author, who fills time and eternity with His purpose. Yet His purpose is achieved in our duty, and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another … This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.”

All of these examples reflect different aspects of the American myth – truth, optimism, and providence. Presidents use the myth to create a lens through which we see ourselves – our past, and most importantly in America, our future. But the myth is not entirely monolithic. Presidents mold the myth to reflect their administration’s agendas. For Johnson, the myth justified fighting a particular ideology. For Grant, the myth justified expansion. For Reagan it justified building a large military, presumably to ensure that the glorious music of America (a symphony written by God, of course) is never silenced. And for Bush, the myth indicates that God is responsible for our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Curiously, Bush’s address came eight months prior to 9/11, which supposedly initiated our new preemptive philosophy. Yet according to the President, our days of simply shining from the hill were over by the time he took office. Democracy is blowing into the world with the help of a raging storm – a storm caused not by our policies, but by God himself.

Despite what I consider to be dangerous abuses of the American myth, there is a real risk of doing away with the national myth all together. Nations do Balkanize when their common stories lose their adhesiveness. But we should never forget that the myths are ours, and that we have a say in what they are. I tend to think we even have a responsibility to attend to our myths. I don’t think we should allow Jerry Falwell to go unchallenged when he claims that God favors us more than other nations. And I certainly don’t think he should get away with passing blame for our nation’s problems onto our nation’s most oppressed. For me, it boils down to this: America is, and always will be, the home of the brave – a land where children make faces only after tasting broccoli.

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