Donald Trump Evoking Civil Religion

 

This is a photo-op that former President Trump decided to take in the midst of widespread Black Lives Matter protests that occurred after George Floyd’s death. In an effort to quell the protests, Trump posed outside of this church (which had been boarded up to protect from rioters) and held up a bible. The statement was presumably intended to signify national power, insinuating that God was on the side of the government and the military against the protestors. 

His message is an example of Bellah’s theory of civil religion, which is "selectively derived from Christianity” but “clearly not itself Christianity” (Bellah 1967: 7). It encapsulates the idea that a higher power supports the ideals of America, as many U.S. institutions center around religion. Even though America is secular, American politics tend to follow “beliefs, symbols, and rituals with respect to sacred things and institutionalized in a collectivity” (Bellah 1967:8). For instance, Trump was evoking the bible and the church he was standing in front of as symbols. Although these are traditionally Christian, his use of them for a political statement evokes the notion of “civil religion” because they are prominently used by politicians with the purpose of evoking national collectivity.  

This image is also an example of the fact that “The civil religion has not always been invoked in favor of worthy causes” (Bellah 1967: 14). Many critiqued Trump’s use of the bible and the church in this instance because he did not faithfully engage with either. He held the bible upside-down at first and neglected to go inside the church after the photo-op to check on those inside. In this way, the use of symbols in civil religion can be empty and used without good intent. However, many who supported Trump found the statement to be powerful, signifying that the notion of a higher power supporting the American government is still held.