PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY
In this blog, I will list, in no particular order, ten areas of common interests and goals for nationalists and theists.
1) They both need to set up a “hit” list: those that fall out of their circumscribed boundaries. Having a God, alone, is insufficient for being counted among the “in crowd.” Religion may include not only infidels and atheists to be outside of their circle, but also members of another faith or denomination. Nationalism also excludes not only those who natively speak another language, but also those who have loyalty to a competing power. They both demand a loyalty to the cause; a willingness to make extreme sacrifices. You must be willing to swear allegiance to the flag - the national or the religious flag.
2) Both believe that they have been chosen for a supreme mission. Usually, it is a redemptive role. The earliest American Pilgrims saw themselves as a New Israel and wrote the Mayflower Compact to publicly declare their messianic zeal. President Bush, echoed their sentiments when, almost immediately after the 9-11 catastrophe, he declared that Americans will be the vanguard nation to “rid the world of evil.”
3) Both are involved in building structures for the benefit of their community – such as schools, hospitals, sporting arenas, and cultural centers - as well as important infrastructures – such as organizations and movements - that represent their main causes and peeves.
4) Ceremonial rites are very important to both: There are organized (and only occasionally spontaneous) spectacles whose intent is to fabricate awe and reverence. Defiantly absenting oneself from such spectacles brings derision and criticism. Most recently, athletes who “took the knee” while the national anthem played were denounced and will never appear on a Wheaties cereal box. We are required to choke up when the military band plays the national anthem while the American flag flutters. When one chooses such a hallowed moment to indicate their dissatisfaction for how things are, they ruin the effect of the spectacle. Such “infidels” need to be punished, or at least verbally ostracized.
5) Nationalism too requires “father” figures that people can emulate and respect. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln play the same roles for Americans as Moses, Jesus and Mohammed do for various religions. Nationalism proves that secular saints exist. The national monuments that pay homage to these “saints” are visited with a measure of respect saved only for temples, churches or mosques. Desecrating these revered sites is to spit at all those who venerate these figures.
6) Nationalism has often been called a form of civil religion not only for its reverence of iconic national figures (many of them avowed secularists) but also because it establishes commemorative holidays with prescribed rites. Every sitting President must visit a gravesite of fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, and so on.
7) Both nationalism and religion look askance at marriages (or any kind of unions) that bring together two people from different spheres. When an American Protestant brings home an American Muslim or a Sudanese Catholic to meet the parents the reaction is not pleasant. You are supposed to stick to your own kind. Endogamous marriages are preferred in both movements.
8) Each denomination has developed a ranking system that excludes those that are not “member of the tribe.” Nationalism has passports and alien status. Religion has developed terms – Dhimmi for non-Muslims, Gentiles for non-Jews – that indicate the lower status of those who don’t belong and prescribed conditions to survive in a theocracy that the majority controls. The key to knowing whether an outsider will be acceptable depends on their “meltable” quality: will the next generation be able to conform and blend into the general population.
9) The areas of discord within the two groups are also strikingly similar. But nationality and religion have trouble with a completely democratic system. While constitutionally a Marxist can be an elected official, no one would dare refer themselves as such – and be gauged on their record and evaluated on their past performance – if they hope to win a general election. Minorities from countries warring with us (and until recently all women) are also deemed to be unworthy of holding official office, even if elected and supported by a majority of constituents.
10) Finally, both appeal to our sense that we need some sort of salvation. Religion claims that messiah will come and liberate us. Nationalism espouses salvation, but only when everyone will dance to their tune. This notion usually carries the preamble, “if they could just be more like us.”
Religion and nationalism develop in tandem because they serve each other well, much like peanut butter and jelly. They are intoned together, as in “god and country,” despite a lack of rhyme or alliteration. The two serve similar interests. They reside alone together in modern history and in the bosom of nearly every conservative. Only in the past century have some complained that we don’t like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, not in combination or individually made.