One of the most remarkable elements of President Trump’s inaugural speech was its thorough rejection of the tenets of American civil religion. From George Washington to Barack Obama, presidents have spoken of the United States as having a divinely appointed mission to spread liberty and democratic principles. For example, George W. Bush, in his first inaugural address, said that the nation was answerable to God, “who fills time and eternity with his purpose” and whose purpose is “achieved in our duty” to the country’s ideals. Eight years later, Obama called on the nation to carry forward “the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.” Since both Bush and Obama believed that the United States aspires to ideals that transcend the nation itself—“ideals that light the world,” in Obama’s phrase—they could invite people around the globe to look to the United States as a partner.
Trump, by contrast, offered no soaring vision of American purpose. He portrayed a world of zero-sum trade-offs in which gains for Americans inevitably mean losses for non-Americans. Rather than appealing to universal principles, the pursuit of which would benefit all people, Trump promised a purely national triumph of prosperity and security: “From now on, it’s America first.”
Theologians have long been wary or dismissive of civil religion, noting that it often functions as a rival religion to authentic faith—it’s a brand of Christian heresy. Civil religion borrows Christian themes but celebrates the stories and martyrs of the nation rather than the church and treats the nation rather than the church as the vehicle of God’s purposes. As such, especially in times of war, American civil religion has been an invitation to hubris and self-righteousness; it can cloak mundane self-interest in religious garb.
