Civil Religion

We are all too aware these days of the lawsuit pending against the Cheatham County School System. Were I a lawyer I might be able to discuss with some benefit the nature of the charges and the legal precedents involved in this case, but I am a pastor, not a lawyer. As a pastor, I tend to think of the ethical dimensions of things because as someone has said, “Ethics are the fruit of our theology.”

So, what does it ethically say about our society that we are growing increasingly secular? Make no mistake about it, this lawsuit is just one bristle in the broom that intends to sweep America clean of any form of civil religion. Note that I said “civil religion” not “evangelical Christianity.” It would be a great misunderstanding on the part of the secularist to assume that having a Cross on the classroom wall, a Bible on the teacher’s desk, or even granting the Gideons access to give away copies of the Bible is an effort to coerce conversion. Rather, that Cross might cause a student to think twice before cheating on a test, that Bible may demonstrate a concern on the part of the teacher that transcends academics, and those Gideons are giving students a free copy of the best selling and most influential book ever written. What I am saying is that “civil religion” has many positive aspects, not the least of which is to produce better citizens.

Sir Frederick Catherwood, a Christian and a member of the European Parliament once wrote, “To try to improve society is not worldliness but love. To wash your hands of society is not love but worldliness.” This is no time for Christian people to retreat to their sanctuaries and decry the world outside. We must be engaged with the society and that will mean using the tools that our democratic republic affords. Foremost among these is freedom of speech. We must express our opinion, in as convincing a manner as possible, to those in power. We must not forget the power of the ballot and be willing to vote both for those who share our convictions, and against those who oppose them. Lastly, there must be engagement on the judicial level. This is, after all, the way most of these things come to pass. This is not the time to be “washing our hands” of it all.

G. K. Chesterton wrote that, “America is a nation with the soul of a church.” I am convinced that cleansing our school system of any vestige of civil religion would be an abandonment of what we as a nation really are. Let it never be that our national motto is emptied of all its meaning. In God We Trust.