Today’s Inauguration Was a Reconsecration of Sacred Space
C’mon, admit it: you had the Kleenex handy while you watched the swearing-in of the…
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Charged with Impiety: When Black Bodies Defy Tradition
When Black athletes like Gabrielle Douglas fail to be model Olympians and model players, they become treasonous.
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How Protesting Black Bodies are Imagined as a Threat to National Pride
Last night, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman declined to take questions during a press conference,…
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Why Kaepernick’s Refusal to Stand Is an Act of Religious Dissent
The American flag represents the nation state as a sacred entity—it serves as symbol for the nation’s self-worship.
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How Robert Bellah (1927-2013) Changed the Study of Religion
Over fifty years ago Bellah rocked the field of religious studies with a pioneering study on Japanese religion. When he died suddenly this past week he was working on a book that was set to land him as a pioneer yet again.
Read MoreThe Sacramental American Day of Thanks
Secular holidays, actually constituting a quasi-sacred calendar, span the entire year: From New Year’s Day, the King Holiday, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veteran’s Day, and now, at long last, Thanksgiving Day.
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Marriage Equality: A Civil Religious Moment
Ralph Reed is doing a kind of constitutional drag performance for the press, dressing his religious values in secular sequins and pearls, but we all know what’s beneath the costume, right?
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Goodbye, (Mythic) Columbus
If the fear of a broken society is, at its deepest level, the fear of a broken foundation myth—a loss of the sense of secure identity that once came from simply living on American soil—then no party is to blame for it and no party can fix it.
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Repentance on Wall Street?
Is there something about civil religion in the US that gives those responsible a pass?
Read More“You Lie!”: Messing with American Mass
Does Rep. Wilson’s outburst before the president signal something deeper about the state of our national rituals?
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