American Nationalism is a religion. Consider:

1. Conventional religions have holy scriptures. Christianity has the Bible; Islam, the Qu’ran; Judaism, the Torah. American Nationalism has the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights — documents that every American is encouraged to read and own and understand, documents whose earliest copies are housed and glorified for public display. America also has sacred stories, of varying historicity: George Washington and the cherry tree, the heroic exploits of the Sons of Liberty, and more. These documents and tales are formative for Americans the way Scripture and religious narratives are formative for faith communities.

2. Religions have hymns and songs of worship. These span the full spectrum from the Psalms to the dizzying confusion of modern Christian “praise music”. Nationalism has its hymns as well: sacred songs like The Star-Spangled Banner and invocations of divine favor like God Bless America. These pieces of national music serve exactly the same role in American public discourse that hymns do in church services: they give us a giddy feeling in our hearts, affirm our allegiances, draw us together.

3. Many Christian traditions are historically creedal, using a standard statement of faith as a declaration of identity and belonging to community. In American Nationalism, the role of the creed is filled by the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge is a liturgical, corporate statements of identity, and goes at least as the far as the Creeds in terms of committing to a certain identity.

4. Religions have institutional forms, in addition to their cultural expression: the Roman Catholic Church, for example. Similar, nationalism has a institutionalized form: government. Just as the institutional Church hierarchy defines (or seeks to define) what is normative for a given faith, American (and other) systems of government enforce norms on the cultures they stand guard over.

5. Symbols is incredibly important to both conventional religions and nationalistic religion. Christianity has the cross; Islam has the crescent; nationalism has the flag. These symbols are often prominently displayed by adherents (at least by Christians and nationalists) — on car bumpers, on buildings, in advertisements.

6. Conventional religion uses places of worship: the church, the synagogue, the mosque. Though they are fewer in number, nationalism has its temples as well: the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and much more. These temples are often devoted to the memory of the nationalist’s analogue of a saint: a Founding Father, or a successful soldier, or a conquering explorer. Where Christianity has martyrs, nationalism has heroes.

(Maybe this will help people understand why I object to having flags in churches.)

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ADDENDUM: Long after writing this, I realized that Gregory Boyd had written up a similar comparison of nationalistic practices and religious ones, and that this comparison was quoted in part in Jesus for President (by Shain Claiborne and Chris Haw), which I have read. I fear that Boyd’s writing strongly influenced my own here.