A New Time Of Trial: The MAGA Movement’s Distortion Of The American Civil Religion

 

    The image I am choosing to write about for my first blog post depicts a scene from the insurrection of the Capitol Building in Washington on January 6th, 2021. The Capitol insurrection was an attempt by fervent supporters of then-former President Donald Trump to prevent and disrupt the certification of then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory by Congress. I and many others remember the insurrection as a horrific effort and undermining of the tenets of American democracy. However, as is suggested in this picture, some believe that their efforts on January 6th align with Christianity or the commands of a higher power. There is a massive wooden cross in the middle of the photograph, with a man to the left presumably holding it upright. Around the man and the cross, you can see the Capitol Building, which is the location of Congress, several other insurrectionists, and Trump-themed flags, one of which looks to read “Trump: Keep America Great.” As a politician, Trump is known for both his far-right populism and his extremist, hyper-loyal audience. Trump has stated publicly, on numerous occasions, that he is a Christian and has incorporated religious imagery and language into his campaign materials in an attempt to win the votes of Christian conservatives and fundamentalists. 

    In his 1967 paper Civil Religion In America, the sociologist Robert Bellah argues that there are a set of sacred symbols and beliefs that unite Americans, and that this implies the existence of a “public religious dimension” (Bellah 1967:4). Bellah calls this dimension, which is separate from but closely related to political life, the “American civil religion.” In this concept, Bellah’s Durkheimian influence is clear – these symbols and beliefs can be understood as “totems” (Durkheim 2020:155). The civil religion & invocations of it help reinforce American national identity. The civil religion is unique in that it is not the same as Christianity but takes references from Christianity (Bellah 1967:8), as is evident from its reliance on a more nebulous idea of “God.” Although church and state are separated in the United States, this distinction “has not denied the political realm a religious dimension” (Bellah 1967:3). Bellah illustrates the unifying nature of the civil religion by dissecting John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech as president, in which he discusses the serious and sacred duties of his office and uses the concept of “God” to unite audiences. Bellah argues that, in invoking God in his inaugural address, Kennedy frames his presidency as not only an obligation to the people, but an obligation to a higher power to carry out virtuous and necessary work on Earth. In essence, Bellah suggests that the civil religion gives political work a “transcendent goal” (Bellah 1967:4) and assigns new meaning to political power. Bellah also notes that the civil religion has changed alongside culture and political dynamics, and has undergone distinct phases in which American identity and values are renegotiated (Bellah 1967:16). At the end of his piece, Bellah points out that while the civil religion is generally unifying and can help us understand ourselves and our values as Americans, it can also be understood so as to justify behavior and values that are not at all ‘civil’ or God-like. He refers to this phenomenon as “distortion” and references the Christian far-right as an example of a group that invokes the civil religion to undermine solidarity and symbols of democracy (Bellah 1967:14).

    The image of the insurrection that I have selected is a clear example of American civil religion as well as its co-optation in present-day political life. In this image, a sacred, emotionally charged symbol (the cross) that has great meaning to Americans, is being deployed to advance the goals of the MAGA political movement, which are in opposition to previous uses of the civil religion, such as Abraham Lincoln’s embodiment of it (Bellah 1967:10). The use of this symbol as depicted in my image aligns directly with Bellah’s claim that, despite the separation of church and state, there is still a “religious dimension” to American political life, and symbols that unite Americans. The MAGA movement is a perfect example of the ways in which distorted civil religion can lead to political polarization and division. When reading Bellah’s description of the invocation of the civil religion and its symbols in favor of unworthy causes (Bellah 1967:14), I immediately thought about instances in the MAGA movement like that of my image, where religious symbols are co-opted. Bellah suggests that there have been, as of 1967, when he wrote Civil Religion In America, three key “times of trial” for the American civil religion – the question of American independence from Britain, slavery in the United States, and the problem of responsibility in a dynamic global atmosphere. The use of the American civil religion in political life is by no means “distortion” in all contexts, but the invocation of the civil religion to carry out acts of far-right Christian nationalism is. I would argue that the distortion of the American civil religion by far-right Christian nationalists and Trump supporters marks an especially consequential time of trial for the civil religion and American democracy, where new values are introduced and previous notions of the civil religion are contested. This specific “time of trial” holds dangerous implications for civil and political life. Bellah’s theory of the civil religion and its distortion can help explain why people would carry out such an anti-democratic act in the name of the cross, a ‘sacred’ symbol in Christianity and, arguably, in the American civil religion that has many components of Christianity even if it is not Christian itself.

Works cited:

Bellah, Robert N. 1967. “Civil Religion in America.” Daedalus 96(1):1-21.

Durkheim, Emile. 2020. "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life." In Sociological Theory in the Classical Era, 4th ed., edited by Edles and Appelrouth, 151-170. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. (p. 155)

Image: Pacific Press Media Production Corp. January 6, 2021. Pro-Trump Protesters Outside the Capitol Building, 6 January 2021. Alamy Live News. Retrieved on March 27, 2025, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/stop-separating-good-christians-from-trump-supporters/.