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Politically Pastoral

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When Patriotism Becomes False Religion

When Patriotism Becomes False Religion

Last updated on: October 24, 2023 at 3:19 pm by Rev. Jason Carson Wilson

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When Patriotism Becomes False Religion 2023-10-24T15:19:51-04:00 Rev. Jason Carson Wilson

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Patriotism became a religion during the Reagan administration. After all, the Moral Majority helped usher former Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan into the White House. Reagan spent eight years in office repaying them by demonizing and demoralizing everyone they despised. History has a funny way of repeating itself.

City On A Hill

His city on a hill had a residential covenant. Reagan coined the phrase welfare queens and used the War on Drugs to criminalize Black people. He sat idly by while his conservative handlers tortured LGBTQIA+ people dying of AIDS and refused to acknowledge the epidemic. Reagan didn’t say AIDS until September 1985–four years after its U.S. debut.

At one point, his administrator and the media thought it was funny. Reagan, the Great Communicator, was only concerned about one conservative congregation. Black people and LGBTQIA+ people didn’t belong at his patriotic tent meeting. Many people, including Black conservatives, stood in that gap.

Pledging allegiance to the flag and singing the National Anthem became spiritual practices. Anyone exercising their Constitutional right to neither was labeled un-American, at best, or a communist, at worst. Reagan and his more conservative supporters brought this attitude to our churches.

American flags became liturgical symbols, standing next to crosses in many church sanctuaries. That led to conflating party affiliation with a faith tradition. The belief that only Republicans could be Christians became supposed conventional wisdom.

Only Democrats support abortion, recognize the humanity of LGBTQIA+ people, and treat women and people of color more respectfully. The latter was my experience while raised in a conservative evangelical church in downstate Illinois. In other words, Democrats are cavorting with sinners.

Looking For Another Hero

That movement faltered after Reagan left office and President George H. W. Bush failed to continue his predecessor’s particular approach to governing. It continued to flounder until the presidential campaign and election of President Barack Obama.

The Tea Party inspired the Birther Movement, which Donald Trump enthusiastically co-signed in 2011. That provided the infrastructure for his presidential campaign in 2016. More importantly, it gave the movement a new cult leader for which it had searched. Trump became the voice of real Americans who were being ignored.

Who are these real Americans? White, straight, natural-born citizens. Trump was speaking to and for them when he called the white supremacists who descended on Charlottesville good people. Lord knows he sent multiple messages via immigration policies, which included separating children from their parents.

No Seasoning

His promise and efforts to Make America Great Again are only attempts to scoop all the seasoning from the melting pot. Trump and his minions want to codify white heteronormative supremacy that dehumanizes and demoralizes LGBTQIA+ people, people of color, and women, among other people.

A bland melting pot with no color is what his Great America tastes like. It’s the America many of his supporters want to live in. That’s why Trump is their knight in a shining golf cart. Making America great again means reverting to a nation where we, the people, don’t include anyone who isn’t white, straight, or cisgender.

Latter-Day Patriots passionately believe a whiter, brighter, and straighter nation is God’s will. All dissidents are considered sacrilegious traitors. Taking a knee would cost Colin Kaepernick any opportunity to play in the NFL. (Never mind that NFL teams are paid to participate in the patriotic performance.)

Truth Is Now Propaganda

Librarians and teachers across the nation have been demonized for doing their jobs. Spreading knowledge about people who aren’t white and straight has become verboten. Even Scholastic Books has gotten in on the act by self-banning its books.

Manufactured culture wars have demonized LGBTQIA+ people to build the political capital to perpetuate a political movement disguised as a moral and religious crusade wrapped in an American flag–where a Lee Greenwood song becomes a hymn.

That brand of patriotism’s theology is steeped in patriarchy and white supremacy. Donald Trump is its poster child. Trump’s stranglehold on the party has nothing to do with policies or ideas. He and his political minions are short on both.

They only know what they’re against. Being against anything and everything that doesn’t represent their version of a GREAT America is another spiritual practice of their religion. That America–and Trump–should be mindlessly obeyed.

Compromise Is A 4-Letter Word

Any questions, criticisms, or attempts at compromise are sacrilegious. That’s why we have no U.S. House speaker. Entertaining the possibility of working with Democrats, in part, led to McCarthy’s ouster. Only candidates who are in lockstep with Trump need apply.

Pledging allegiance to the flag and singing the National Anthem are now quasi-spiritual practices in the name of warped patriotism. That form of patriotism has transformed into a pseudo-religion bordering on a cult not driven by ideas or policies–but by a personality.

He’s a personality who embraces his messiah status. Jesus wouldn’t do anything Trump has done.

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