A question of patriotism?
Book includes analysis of Barack Obama’s ‘civil religious’ language
Issues of loyalty and patriotism have come into sharp focus since the controversy over statements made by Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.
How is one to interpret Wright’s statements, which Obama himself called “inflammatory and appalling”; and how does the Democratic front runner for the U.S. president truly regard the nation he hopes to represent?
The University of Massachusetts Press book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective by Bruce T. Murray, includes an analysis of Obama’s rhetoric in the context of civil religion – a belief system that binds the nation’s deepest-held values with transcendent meaning.
“Imagine Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address without reference to ‘the judgments of the Lord,’ or King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech without reference to ‘all of God’s children?’” Murray quotes Obama from his book, The Audacity of Hope (a title lifted from one of Wright's sermons.)
On close analysis, Obama’s rhetoric falls squarely within the long tradition of civil religion, as enunciated by the nation’s founders, and further defined by Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. These leaders expressed deep devotion to America – under a divine authority – while also calling the nation to account for its shortcomings. Murray’s book takes an in-depth look at civil religion in all of its permutations — from colonial times to the present.
Murray also reviews the history of religious liberty in America for the past 400 years, while keeping a close eye on current issues such as battles over religious symbols in the public square, recent Supreme Court decisions, the “culture wars,” and immigration.
“Bruce Murray seeks to lay out historically and conceptually the issues behind the two religious liberty clauses in the First Amendment. In doing so, he introduces and traces such significant topics as the development of religious pluralism and its ironic counterpart, civil religion. Nowhere is there such a clear and concise explanation of the issues as Murray offers in this book.”
– Philip Goff, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis.
Purchase Religious Liberty in America on University of Massachusetts Press Web site.
Find out more about the author here.