Waldo Beach - "On Civil Religion" (September 17, 1972)

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	(church organ music)	0:03
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	(indistinct choir singing)
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:09
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:11
	(church organ music)	1:14
	(indistinct choir singing)
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:42
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:45
	(church organ music)	1:47
	(indistinct choir singing)
	(church organ music)	1:54
	(church organ music)	2:53
	(indistinct choir singing)
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	3:14
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	3:16
	(church organ music)	3:19
	(indistinct choir singing)
	♪ Amen ♪	3:28
-	If we claim to be sinless,	3:44
	we are self deceived	3:47
	and strangers to the truth.	3:50
	If we confess our sins,	3:54
	God may be trusted to forgive us our sins	3:58
	and cleanse us from every kind of wrong.	4:03
	Let us pray.	4:08
	(indistinct choir singing)	4:12
	Let us continue our prayer in unison.	4:40
	"Forgive us, our sins, oh Lord,	4:45
	the sins of the present	4:48
	and the sins of the past,	4:50
	the sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies,	4:53
	the sins which we have done to please ourselves	4:58
	and the sins which we have done to please others.	5:02
	Forgive us our casual sins and our deliberate sins.	5:06
	Forgive us them, oh lord.	5:12
	Forgive them all for Jesus Christ's sake, Amen."	5:14
	And hear these words of the assurance of pardon,	5:21
	believe the good news of the Gospel.	5:26
	In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.	5:30
	Being forgiven let us offer unto God the prayer,	5:37
	which Jesus taught his disciples, saying,	5:41
	"Our father who art in heaven,	5:45
	hallowed be thy name,	5:49
	thy kingdom come.	5:52
	Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	5:54
	Give us this day, our daily bread	5:59
	and forgive us our trespasses	6:02
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	6:04
	and lead us not into temptation,	6:08
	but deliver us from evil	6:11
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	6:13
	and the glory forever, Amen."	6:17
	(mellow music)	6:22
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	(indistinct choir singing)	7:49
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	(indistinct choir singing)	9:01
	(church organ music)
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	(indistinct choir singing)	9:50
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	(indistinct choir singing)	10:03
	(church organ music)
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	(church organ music)
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	(church organ music)
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	(indistinct choir singing)	11:08
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	(indistinct choir singing)	11:39
	(church organ music)
	(church organ music)	11:49
	(indistinct choir singing)	11:52
	(church organ music)
	(church organ music)	12:03
	The Lord be with you.	12:43
	Let us pray.	12:47
	Let us offer first a prayer of thanks.	12:50
	We thank thee, gracious God, for things we take for granted,	12:54
	for another day of life, for bread upon the table	13:00
	for friends who love us in spite of what we are,	13:07
	for mercy given us beyond our deserving,	13:12
	for the immeasurable joy of joy,	13:17
	for the holy saints and for the holy heretics,	13:23
	for the opportunity of worship in this good place,	13:29
	for Jesus Christ, our risen Lord	13:35
	unto whom with thee, and the Holy Spirit,	13:39
	be all glory and majesty	13:41
	world without end.	13:45
	Let us offer a prayer of intercession	13:49
	at a time of tragedy on our campus.	13:55
	Almighty and eternal God,	13:59
	who art the God of the living and of the dead,	14:01
	we commend unto thee	14:07
	the spirit of our fellow student Shelton Adams	14:08
	in the confident assurance	14:13
	that thou hast received him unto thyself.	14:16
	Strengthen, we beseech thee, his family	14:21
	and his friends.	14:25
	Let their faith in thee	14:28
	and our remembrance of them	14:31
	steady them in the hours of sorrow.	14:35
	May they be comforted by their confidence	14:39
	in life that is eternal	14:42
	as promised and sealed unto us by thy son,	14:45
	even Jesus Christ, our Lord.	14:51
	Let us offer a prayer of supplication for ourselves.	14:57
	Oh thou in whose boundless being	15:02
	are laid up all treasures of wisdom, truth and holiness,	15:05
	grant us through constant fellowship with thee	15:11
	the true graces of Christian character,	15:15
	a grace of courage,	15:20
	whether in suffering or in danger,	15:23
	the grace of preparedness	15:28
	lest we enter into temptation,	15:31
	the grace to treat others as we would have others treat us,	15:35
	the grace of charity,	15:42
	that we may refrain from hasty judgment,	15:45
	the grace of silence	15:49
	that we may refrain from hasty speech,	15:52
	the grace of forgiveness toward all who have wronged us,	15:56
	the grace of tenderness towards all who are weaker,	16:01
	and the grace of steadfastness	16:07
	in continuing to desire	16:10
	that thou wilt do as now we pray.	16:13
	Our Father God, by whom we live	16:20
	and on whom our hopes are built	16:22
	grant us ears to hear, eyes to see,	16:25
	wills to obey, hearts to love.	16:31
	Then declare what thou wilt.	16:36
	Reveal what thou wilt.	16:40
	Command what thou wilt.	16:44
	Demand what thou wilt.	16:48
	And let each one of us answer,	16:52
	speak Lord for thy servant here.	16:55
	Amen.	17:03
-	The lesson for today is from Amos chapter five,	17:11
	verses seven to 15, 21 to 24.	17:14
	"Oh, you who turned justice to wormwood	17:19
	and cast down righteousness on the earth!	17:22
	He who made the Pleiades and Orion,	17:24
	and turns deep darkness into the morning	17:28
	and darkens the day into night,	17:30
	who calls for the waters of the sea	17:33
	and pours them out upon the surface of the earth,	17:35
	the Lord is his name;	17:38
	who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,	17:40
	so that destruction comes upon the fortress.	17:43
	They hate him, who reproves in the gate,	17:46
	and they abhor him who speaks the truth.	17:49
	Therefore because you trample upon the poor	17:51
	and take from him exactions of wheat,	17:55
	you have built houses of hewn stone,	17:58
	but you shall not dwell in them;	18:01
	you have planted pleasant vineyards,	18:03
	but you shall not drink their wine.	18:05
	For I know how many are your transgressions,	18:08
	how great are your sins.	18:11
	You who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,	18:13
	and turn aside the needy in the gate.	18:17
	Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent	18:19
	in such a time, for it is an evil time.	18:23
	Seek good, and not evil, that you may live;	18:26
	and so the Lord, the God of Hosts,	18:29
	will be with you, as you have said.	18:31
	Hate evil, and love good,	18:34
	and establish justice in the gate;	18:36
	it may be that the Lord, the God of Hosts,	18:39
	will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."	18:42
	"I hate, I despise your feasts,	18:45
	and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.	18:48
	Even though you offer me your burnt offerings	18:51
	and cereal offerings, I will not accept them;	18:54
	and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts,	18:58
	I will not look upon.	19:00
	Take away from me the noise of your songs;	19:03
	to the melody of your harps I will not listen.	19:06
	But let justice roll down like waters,	19:08
	and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."	19:11
	Here ends the reading of the lesson, Amen.	19:15
	(church organ music)	19:19
	(church organ music)	19:28
	(indistinct choir singing)
	♪ Amen, Amen♪	19:53
-	Let us affirm our faith in God.	20:04
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	20:09
	who has come in the true man Jesus	20:15
	to reconcile and make new,	20:18
	who works in us and others by his spirit.	20:22
	We trust him.	20:26
	He calls us to be in his church	20:28
	to celebrate his presence,	20:31
	to love and serve others,	20:34
	to seek justice and resist evil,	20:36
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	20:40
	our judge and our hope	20:44
	in life in death,	20:47
	in life beyond death, God is with us.	20:49
	We are not alone.	20:54
	Thanks be to God.	20:56
-	During an election campaign,	21:27
	as on the 4th of July or on inauguration day,	21:31
	amid all the pious and ringing rhetoric,	21:36
	there was a serious yearning and a stirring of conscience	21:42
	in America about first principles	21:47
	in our national life and behavior.	21:51
	In campaign 72,	21:56
	we can expect a mounting crescendo of noise	22:00
	from each party,	22:04
	making its messianic claims	22:07
	of virtue in holy war	22:10
	against the vice of the other party.	22:13
	We are called on to throw the rascals out,	22:17
	to let the saints go marching in	22:22
	or from the other side	22:25
	to keep the rascals out	22:28
	so that the saints can continue their righteous rule.	22:31
	It may be appropriate here and now	22:39
	not to preach an election sermon	22:43
	as the Puritan pastors in New England always did,	22:48
	but to consider by the light of Christian norms,	22:53
	something of our national ethos	22:58
	and the relationship of religious faith	23:02
	to political practice.	23:06
	Despite the legal separation of church and state	23:09
	and the steady secularization of common life,	23:14
	there remains a more than sentimental tie	23:19
	between religious faith and our national ethos.	23:25
	When we ask what is the esprit de corps	23:31
	of the body politic,	23:36
	we acknowledge that it is something spiritual	23:40
	and something seriously threatened.	23:43
	Mr. Nixon, in his inaugural address	23:49
	spoke of a crisis of the spirit	23:54
	and promised that it would be met	23:58
	by an answer of the spirit.	24:02
	On another occasion he said,	24:07
	"it is the character of a nation	24:10
	that determines whether it survives	24:11
	no matter how rich or strong it is,	24:14
	a civilization cannot endure	24:18
	without spiritual and moral strength."	24:21
	Mr. McGovern bids America	24:26
	to come home again.	24:29
	Where's home?	24:33
	From where have we strayed?	24:36
	The answer is given	24:40
	in terms of the moral and spiritual values	24:43
	or the faith of our fathers.	24:47
	Now we must not be romantic here	24:51
	about the church piety of the Founding Fathers.	24:55
	Sorry, but George Washington did not kneel in prayer	25:02
	in the snow at Valley Forge.	25:07
	He would not kneel in prayer,	25:12
	even in the church of which he was vestry man.	25:14
	In the era of the Revolution	25:21
	perhaps four to 7% of Americans were church members.	25:24
	But inner piety	25:30
	that's another matter.	25:34
	It is not being romantic to claim	25:37
	that there was a profound sense of reverence	25:41
	that informed common life,	25:43
	that man lived in an accountability	25:46
	to a transcendent Lord,	25:51
	the Supreme judge of the universe,	25:54
	to whom the signers	25:59
	of the Declaration of Independence appealed.	26:01
	You remember quote	26:04
	"for the rectitude of our intentions"	26:07
	end quote.	26:11
	And the phrase comes at the end	26:14
	for more than political effect.	26:17
	And Washington wrote	26:20
	quote "reason and experience both forbid us	26:24
	to expect that national morality can prevail	26:27
	in exclusion of religious principle," end quote.	26:33
	Providence was not just the name	26:40
	of a village in Rhode Island.	26:44
	It was a living reality arching over all.	26:47
	This reverence, this fear of the Lord	26:54
	undergirded the sense of moral responsibility	26:59
	in the American character	27:03
	that emerged in the new nation	27:05
	as de Tocqueville and others observed	27:08
	and prevailed to a much larger degree than now.	27:12
	Men could trust each other	27:20
	and walk without fear,	27:23
	leaving their doors unlocked	27:26
	in part because of a shared sense of accountability to God	27:29
	and to the moral commandments.	27:36
	This kind of honor system,	27:39
	grounded in reverence	27:43
	kept the fabric of communities strong.	27:45
	It is this quality of life	27:50
	that has been thinning and tearing.	27:53
	There are bad breakdowns,	27:58
	brutalities, and inhumanities,	28:03
	callous disregard for persons and property	28:07
	and our political leadership gropes	28:13
	for the recovery of moral rectitude.	28:17
	They reach for a center,	28:23
	a center, not as some mid point	28:26
	between the radical left	28:30
	and the conservative right,	28:32
	but center as the core or the heart or the home	28:35
	that is the authentic spirit of America.	28:42
	In this search and recall	28:46
	there has developed alongside of the traditional faiths	28:50
	of the churches, a new kind of religion.	28:54
	Call it civil religion.	28:59
	It is essentially a belief in the American way of life,	29:03
	which has its own aura of sanctity.	29:08
	The high priests of this religion,	29:13
	sometimes even in clerical garb,	29:16
	call on us to join, whatever be our official church creed,	29:20
	in a new credo.	29:26
	I believe in America first,	29:29
	the land of the free,	29:33
	at least the free white	29:35
	and the home of the brave,	29:39
	and as the messiah and protector for the free world.	29:42
	It is a religion in the sense that	29:48
	whatever is taken as of absolute and supreme worth,	29:52
	is deity to be worshiped.	29:56
	America is God.	30:00
	The ethics of this civil religion celebrates	30:05
	the Reader's Digest virtues of free enterprise,	30:09
	individualism, self-reliance, competition,	30:14
	brotherhood, progress,	30:18
	prosperity, happiness.	30:21
	These presumably have made America great.	30:26
	What happens now to Christianity	30:32
	at the hands of civil religion?	30:36
	A very subtle process of conversion.	30:40
	The God of our fathers,	30:43
	the Supreme judge of the universe	30:46
	now becomes an American ally,	30:51
	a prop, a helper, a copilot,	30:54
	in whatever be our American mission	31:02
	or as he was called by the late J Edgar Hoover,	31:05
	our greatest secret weapon.	31:10
	This nation under God is read to mean	31:15
	God is on our side	31:19
	for we are his chosen, blessed people.	31:22
	Lately, for some,	31:29
	the God of the Christian faith has even been summoned	31:32
	as a divine chaplain in a holy war	31:36
	against the godless enemy.	31:40
	At an Honor America Day service on the 4th of July	31:45
	a year or two ago	31:49
	before the Washington Monument	31:52
	a placard was fervently paraded,	31:55
	which read "God, Guts,	31:59
	and Gunpowder maintain Liberty".	32:04
	Much more discreetly and soberly	32:11
	the services of worship held regularly in the East room	32:15
	of the White House	32:20
	celebrate the values of the American way	32:22
	as fostered and sustained by	32:25
	traditional Judaism and Christianity	32:29
	in all its plural forms.	32:33
	The invited preachers are carefully screened ahead of time	32:37
	to be sure that they subscribe to the civil religion	32:43
	and say nothing offensive or upsetting.	32:48
	The prophet Amos of the Old Testament	32:53
	would not be invited.	32:59
	It's interesting to ponder whether a prophet	33:03
	of the New Testament named Jesus of Nazareth	33:06
	would be on the approved list.	33:11
	Set against this civil religion,	33:17
	the prophetic religion of the Bible,	33:21
	the faith of an Amos, an Isaiah, a Jeremiah,	33:25
	a Christ, a Saint Paul	33:29
	they are two radically different religions	33:34
	because their gods are different.	33:37
	The God Amos recalls to Israel is the transcendent power	33:42
	who makes the seven stars and Orion	33:49
	and turns the shadow of night into morning,	33:54
	who holds Israel to the same rigid standard of justice,	34:00
	like a plumb line that he holds all the other nations	34:05
	or Isaiah's holy God,	34:11
	high and lifted up.	34:14
	Who in the name of the Lord,	34:16
	berates his people as a rebellious people	34:18
	whose kings	34:22
	say to the seers, see not	34:26
	and to the prophets prophesy not to us what is right.	34:30
	Speak to us smooth things.	34:35
	There are two words, in particular,	34:43
	which prophetic religion says to civil religion	34:47
	and to us who practice its devotional exercises	34:51
	laying on its altars our sacrifices of burnt offerings	34:57
	and burnt bodies.	35:02
	The first is the word of judgment and criticism	35:08
	against taking the American way of life for the true God.	35:13
	If righteousness exalted a nation	35:19
	self-righteousness may destroy it.	35:24
	The pretense that American values are absolute,	35:29
	that we are righteous in all our ways	35:33
	deafens us to the voices that come	35:37
	from all around the world,	35:41
	that we are wanton in our cruelty and brutality,	35:44
	arrogant in our use of power abroad	35:50
	and at home rich in things	35:55
	and poor in soul.	35:59
	Oh, I know well enough	36:05
	that a stance of contrition and repentance	36:09
	is not the usual one for nations to take	36:12
	in confronting each other in diplomatic negotiation.	36:16
	And in an election campaign,	36:22
	no candidate is likely, by the rules of the game,	36:24
	to advertise the truth that we are morally corrupt.	36:29
	Yet it would be a sign, not of weakness,	36:35
	but of spiritual strength	36:39
	to sound the prophetic note of contrition.	36:42
	Lincoln was perhaps one of the last among our presidents	36:47
	who had the theological sensitivity	36:52
	to hear the wrath of God	36:56
	in the events of his time	36:59
	and to speak the word of repentance.	37:01
	Quote he said, "it is the duty of nations	37:04
	as well as of men to confess their sins	37:10
	and transgressions in humble sorrow.	37:14
	Yet with assured hope that genuine repentance	37:19
	will lead to mercy and pardon."	37:23
	Few among our leaders honor the truth	37:28
	of the verse from Proverbs.	37:34
	He who rules his city.	37:37
	He who rules his spirit	37:39
	is greater than he who takes the city.	37:42
	The second word that prophetic religion says	37:49
	to civil religion	37:53
	is that morality pertains to public policy	37:56
	as much as to private life.	38:01
	Currently, we see a rising tide	38:08
	of a new evangelical sweeping	38:09
	fervor on campus, off campus,	38:14
	campus Crusades for Christ	38:19
	Explo '72 in Texas this last summer,	38:23
	T '73 coming up	38:30
	are all good signs of a positive search	38:34
	for a positive faith.	38:38
	This evangelical surge fills the spiritual vacuum left	38:41
	by the collapse of the liberal student Christian movement.	38:48
	It is a recall to the truth that indeed	38:53
	out of the heart are the issues of life.	38:57
	But if you look carefully at the content of the message	39:08
	of the revivalist and ask what is involved	39:13
	in decisions for Christ,	39:17
	the answer is given as private purity	39:20
	and rarely in terms of public policy.	39:27
	Christian character has to do with prayer,	39:31
	faith, trust, love, peace, joy.	39:36
	Public policy has to do with economics and power politics,	39:42
	international relations, business affairs.	39:48
	And the evangelist keeps these two spheres apart.	39:53
	At Explo '72 in Dallas,	39:59
	among the 85,000 young people cheering for Jesus	40:04
	in the Cotton Bowl,	40:09
	making more noise than even the Dallas Cowboys evoke	40:12
	with a winning touchdown	40:17
	almost nothing was said from the podium	40:21
	about the war in Indo-China,	40:25
	about ecology, business ethics,	40:28
	social welfare.	40:32
	And from the standpoint of prophetic religion	40:34
	that simply won't do.	40:39
	Private character cannot be split	40:42
	from public policy.	40:46
	As a tree is known by its fruits	40:49
	a man's character shows in the public policies he adopts,	40:53
	how he acts as a voter, citizen,	40:59
	producer, consumer	41:03
	as much as how he acts at home.	41:08
	Who is this Christ	41:12
	to whom one gives one's heart?	41:16
	Is he just a kind savior	41:20
	who makes me happy?	41:24
	Who takes me off of drugs?	41:27
	The kind of Methodist methadone?	41:31
	Is he not rather one who	41:36
	with the prophets lashed out at conspicuous piety,	41:39
	drove the money changers out of the temple,	41:45
	called Israel back to public righteousness and justice?	41:48
	As a people,	41:55
	only as we seek the Lord of the Universe	41:58
	before whom the nations are like a drop from a bucket	42:03
	and the generations of men rise and pass away,	42:09
	only as we hear his wrath	42:15
	in the events of our present history,	42:18
	and only as we do justice internationally	42:22
	and intra-nationally,	42:27
	may we be prepared to find grace,	42:32
	forgiveness, renewal,	42:37
	and be brought home again.	42:42
	Amen, let us pray.	42:48
	May the words of our mouth,	43:08
	the thoughts of our hearts,	43:14
	together with the actions of our lives	43:18
	be found acceptable in thy sight.	43:24
	Oh Lord, our strength,	43:29
	and our Redeemer,	43:33
	Amen.	43:38
	(church organ music)	43:44
	(indistinct choir singing)	44:26
	(church organ music)
	♪ Amen ♪	46:32
	(church organ music)	46:45
	(choir vocalizing)	47:53
	(indistinct choir singing)	49:11
	(church organ music)	52:00
	(church organ music)	52:39
	(indistinct choir singing)
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	52:49
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	52:52
	(church organ music)	52:56
	(indistinct choir singing)
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	53:07
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	53:09
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	53:12
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	53:15
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	53:18
	♪ Amen ♪	53:26
-	Here we offer and present unto thee Oh Lord,	53:37
	our minted and our printed blood,	53:41
	the symbol of ourselves	53:46
	to be a reasonable, holy	53:49
	and lively sacrifice unto thee	53:52
	in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.	53:56
	(church organ music)	54:04
	(church organ music)	54:13
	(indistinct choir singing)
	(bell rings)	56:08
	(church organ music)	56:22

Item Info

Title:

Waldo Beach - "On Civil Religion" (September 17, 1972)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4s17xt80

Date:

September 17, 1972

Speaker:

Beach, Waldo

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0632
ref6467_b9e
uachapelsermaud
duke:628475
dcrau002617
ark:/87924/r4s17xt80
c2e6adb0-457d-48ed-b0a9-37626c91c272

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Related Resources:

See below

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Waldo Beach - "On Civil Religion" (September 17, 1972)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives