Understanding Why God-References Are a Big Deal (article)

[Rob H.]

Understanding Why God-References Are a Big Deal
"Crisis-Induced Devotion" and the Importance of Church-State Separation
by David Niose

...snip...

There are many reasons why church-state separation is a big deal (indeed, the fact that a valid constitutional claim is being raised should, in itself, qualify the matter as a legitimate "big deal&quot , but there is a psychological component to such issues that sometimes gets overlooked amid all the legal analysis. This component, which I call "crisis-induced devotion" (or "CID&quot , illustrates why governmental religiosity, while sometimes appearing benign and unimportant, is always at least potentially dangerous.

CID shows us that what appears mundane, given the right stimulus, can quickly become extremely intense. CID occurs, for example, when a person who is not particularly religious or patriotic suddenly becomes fervent about their religion or patriotism due to some external crisis that triggers intense devotion.

A case in point is that of Jessica Ahlquist, a young student from Cranston, Rhode Island, who initiated a church-state lawsuit in 2011 to remove a prayer banner hanging from her public high school's gymnasium. The lawsuit, perceived by her community as challenging God and religion, provided a psychological stimulus that caused her classmates, who had previously been as outwardly apathetic about religion and patriotism as any other public school population, to suddenly experience a surge of righteousness. During her homeroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, classmates turned to her and shouted "Under God!" to emphasize that they - and their religious views - were patriotic, and that Jessica was an outsider.

...snip...

Back to consideration of the church-state context, we can see the double-barrel nature of the CID situation, since both religion and country are in play. Clearly, what seems mundane is only masking as mundane. We may see little significance in our national motto being "In God We Trust," but the psychological foundation is nevertheless being laid for a strong association between patriotism and God-belief. And as teenagers slouch and mumble during pledge recitation, perhaps checking out a cute classmate instead of giving full attention to the flag, we shouldn't assume the routine ceremony is "no big deal." Despite their apparent disinterest, those kids are being conditioned to associate love of country with God-belief each time they affirm we are "one nation under God."

As such, when a crisis later comes and CID is triggered, it will only seem natural to see atheists as outsiders.

Full piece is here.

[Phillip McCleod]

1. that article articulates something i've been trying to wrap..

..wrap my head around for a while.. the way social acceptance magical thinking may prime some individuals for a later trigger event. there's a thread in 'religion' about it somewhere's a month back or so.

CID.. is at least plausible.. and will have to think about this some more.

[dimbear]

2. Uh oh, cows are dying. Burn the witch. Uh oh, lost a war. Burn the Jews. Uh oh,

this space intentionally left blank

[trotsky]

3. Interesting.

Quite a few DUers have shown themselves to be susceptible to CID.

[onager]

4. Oh, this sort of stuff is never a big deal...

My feelings are ambivalent this December afternoon as I sit in the visitors' gallery of the courtroom. A Christian and a minister of the gospel, I find it strange to see youngsters having to defend in court such things as prayer and Bible study. Murderers, rapists, armed robbers, and kidnappers have been tried from the same bench! Like some others in the courtroom, I wonder what all the fuss is about. A reporter is overheard during a recess delivering his opinion that the trial is "irrelevant and a waste of time."...

Trying to take prayer and the Bible out of the public school is not a popular endeavor, especially in the heart of the Bible Belt. The decision to go to court to stop the religious school programs made Lucille McCord and Joann Bell about as welcome in Little Axe as a return of the dust bowl. Both attended local churches and believed in giving their children religious training. The school, however, was not the place for that to happen, they felt. "I believe that we have a freedom of religion and a freedom from religion," Mrs. McCord testifies at the trial. "My main complaint is that the church has no place in school, and that the school has no place in the church."

Little Axe, by and large, does not agree. Says Lucille McCord: "After the lawsuit was filed, things began to happen to my children and myself. My son was left out of the sports banquet. This was his sixth year of perfect attendance in school, but he was not given his award. I received between one hundred and two hundred threatening or insulting phone calls. I was called an atheist and a Communist. One phone caller told me, 'If you don't drop the lawsuit, you will get it.' I received my own obituary column in the mail. Finally our family moved to another community because we feared for our personal safety." Contending that her children have developed health problems and psychological damage because of their ordeal, Mrs. McCord seeks actual damages in the trial to pay for her children's psychiatric help.

Joann Bell's story is similar. On May 14, 1981, soon after the lawsuit was filed (and the last time the Son Shine Club met during that school year), a bomb threat was phoned in to the school. With other concerned parents, Joann Bell hurried to the school to check on her children. A cafeteria worker came out to her car, accused her of phoning in the bomb threat, and then began to smash her head repeatedly against the car's door frame. (Mrs. Bell later won a judgment against her attacker.) ...

A school board member, in a newspaper interview, said of those suing the school board: "If people play with fire, they will get burned." The Bells' trailer burned to the ground on September 18, 1981, while the family was attending a football game. After the fire Mrs. Bell received a sympathy card in the mail on which was written: "Ha! ha!" Although several people in the community offered assistance, she no longer trusted anyone. (In January, 1983, the State fire marshal's office declared that the Bells' fire had been intentionally set. The guilty party or parties have still not been apprehended.)

https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1983/11/court-axes-prayer-at-little-axe