I have to admit that I did not get to read the Civil Religion article before class on Tuesday but I just got through reading it and taking the quiz. Normally with stuff like that I will just skim through and skip over most of it to find the answer I need but I actually sat back to read this article. I really liked this idea of a civil religion for America. I think that it is something that Bellah is correct about. There are so many different branches of religion. I mean just under Christianity alone there are so many different branches (Pentecostal, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Catholic, etc.) The idea that we, as a nation, participate in this civil religion is a good idea, I think at least. It makes a lot of sense. For example, I may have a friend who is Catholic (I go to an Assemblies of God church) and we may disagree on some things but under this idea of civil religion we can both understand that the details may be different but we both believe in a god. That is why we can have things like “In God We Trust” on our dollar bills or say things referencing God in our government, because people may not worship or believe exactly the same thing but many people believe that there is a higher power, a god. That is what I got out of the article at least, am I right? Please feel free to share your thoughts on the topic or maybe correct me if I got off track a little bit here. =]
Bellah’s Ideas
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