ABSTRACT
G. K. Chesterton once described America as "a nation with the soul of a church". No one church was allowed to become the official guardian of the central symbols of the United States. Instead, the nation itself began to fill the vacuum where in many cultures a church would be. The nation became its own unifying symbol system, the chief bestower of identity and purpose. A candidate for the presidency of the United States does well to recognize that he is running for a religious office. The national religion is, to be sure, quite pragmatic and secular. The weaker the churches become as symbol systems, the heavier the symbolic weight that must be taken up by the state. In the twentieth century, nations are everywhere becoming politically religious; politics is regarded as a means of salvation. Words once used for religious matters—"commitment", "dedication", "purpose", "principle", "conscience", "witness", "sacrifice", and "prophecy"—are now used frequently in reference to political behavior.
