Taking a Knee - Distorting Robert Bellah's Civil Religion .

By Smrami Patel

        In the USA, Robert Bellah describes civil religion as a system of beliefs that do not rely on a conception of a God, however, still inspires a mass response from Americans, a high level of commitment to the “American Way,” and the sense of social solidarity between Americans. From singing of the national anthem before various sporting events to the sport itself, all are rituals expressing the American civil religion.   

        While civil religion provides a sense of national meaning and what it means to be American, it is “not… a form of national self- worship” (Bellah 1967: 1). Bellah addresses the limitations of his argument and discusses the distortion of civil religion that leads to the exclusion of certain groups - the image above provides just one example. Before a nationally televised game, Kaepernick and his teammate took a knee on the football field during the national anthem as silent protests police brutality, as seen in the image above.   

        If standing with your hand on your heart is a ritual of civil religion, then Kaepernick’s kneeling is the challenge of it. However, a key feature of civil religion is that it does change when facing both internal and external trouble. The athletes trying to reform civil religion with equally American values of racial justice are doing just this. They are attempting to change civil religion to be more inclusion which is an affirmation of civil religion.   

        

        The specificity of the act provides, not only a challenge of civil religion but affirms it because Kaepernick’s kneeling highlighted the respect he held for the scared ritual of the National Anthem. Nevertheless, the athletes who take a knee are seen as are nonconformists who threaten values civil religion. They face social exclusion by taking pay cuts and in some cases, players were "blackballed" from the National Football League. Thus, the distortion of American civil religion results in the isolation and exclusion of these athletes

    Works Cited:

                Bellah, Robert N. 1967. “Civil Religion in America.” Daedalus 96(1): 1-27.

                  Thearon, Henderson. June 09 2020. “Taking a knee: Why are NFL players protesting and when                   did they start to kneel?”. From independent.co.uk. Retrieved March 24 2022                     (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/taking-a-knee-national-anthem-nfl-trump-why-meaning-origins-racism-us-colin-kaepernick-a8521741.html)