Some Americans like the idea that we live by a separation of church and state, and others hate it. But the irony, writes Sheldon Richman, is that church and state have never actually been separate here. They are united in the sense that the state is a church—the Church of America—and you can’t separate a thing from itself.
The religion this church administers is Americanism, a species of nationalism. Nationalism and religion are cut from the same cloth, Richman argues.
As evidence, he points to the presidential State of the Union address. This annual rite signifies something more than merely the chief executive’s compliance with the Constitution’s instruction to “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” It’s also more than a rally for the particular politician holding the office, though it is that, of course.
No, it’s more than these things, suggests Richman. The State of the Union affair is a religious ritual intended to convey to the public the majesty of the state and the awesomeness of the presidency, if not the president, as well as the Congress. It goes along with the many other secular rituals calculated to awe the citizenry, lest the people remind themselves that those who rule them are a bunch of mediocrities, posers, usurpers, and public self-servants.
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