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'One Nation Under God,' September 11 and the Chosen Nation: Moral Decline and Divine Punishment in American Public Discourse
Abstract
Although Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell’s provocative interpretations of September
11 as divine punishment for decadent American social morality were
widely criticized, I argue that their underlying premises are far more “American”
than their critics might admit. I make this claim by exploring several historical
episodes in which critics have viewed spiritual offenses as threatening the promise
of American life: (1) the late-twentieth-century critique that undergirds the
American Christian Right; (2) seventeenth-century New England sermons that
saw God’s displeasure in crop failures, epidemics and Indian attacks; and (3)
anti-slavery rhetoric regarding the Civil War as divine punishment for American
slavery. I close by reflecting on the role of narrative in the construction of jeremiads,
divine punishment as the darker underside of national “chosenness,” and
the ramifications of divine punishment rhetoric in an era of religious pluralism.
If Falwell and Robertson’s comments are troubling, then we must work not
merely at negating a set of ill-timed remarks, but begin thinking about the construction
of a new national political theology and understanding of how—
indeed, if—God works through nations in history.
11 as divine punishment for decadent American social morality were
widely criticized, I argue that their underlying premises are far more “American”
than their critics might admit. I make this claim by exploring several historical
episodes in which critics have viewed spiritual offenses as threatening the promise
of American life: (1) the late-twentieth-century critique that undergirds the
American Christian Right; (2) seventeenth-century New England sermons that
saw God’s displeasure in crop failures, epidemics and Indian attacks; and (3)
anti-slavery rhetoric regarding the Civil War as divine punishment for American
slavery. I close by reflecting on the role of narrative in the construction of jeremiads,
divine punishment as the darker underside of national “chosenness,” and
the ramifications of divine punishment rhetoric in an era of religious pluralism.
If Falwell and Robertson’s comments are troubling, then we must work not
merely at negating a set of ill-timed remarks, but begin thinking about the construction
of a new national political theology and understanding of how—
indeed, if—God works through nations in history.