Sacramental Politics: Religious Worship as Political Action

by Brian T. Kaylor

Looks at how religious worship remains embedded with inherent political messages and behaviors, showing that conflicts between church and state exist not just in the public arena, but in each sanctuary and house of worship.

260 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 2014

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notice of material connection: I received this book for free from The Speakeasy, with no requirement to write a positive review. I am disclosing this to comply with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR Part 255.

Such an important book! Everyone in the USA and elsewhere who sometimes attends church and/or calls themselves Christian could benefit from reading and considering Sacramental Politics. Unlike some other countries, USA never officially has possessed an established church or religion, yet author Brian Kaylor mostly reflects upon and analyzes politically-oriented religious behaviors in the contemporary USA, though he delves a bit into this country's political past, mentions the Confessing Church in Germany with its Barmen Declaration, and also discusses this country's most active branch of the Anglican Communion, The Episcopal Church USA. How fascinating that with our institutional separation, functional interaction of religion and politics in this country, they routinely have prayer rooms at the party connections. I think I knew that, but...

Overall, author Kaylor's perspective is not what some of us might observe and reflect upon regarding the dominical sacraments / ordinances of baptism and holy communion being politically, socially, and cultural subversive. In fact, he never quite gets there, possibly because of his anabaptist background, but he offers so much else. It's impossible to highlight all the rich highlights in a review or even in a more basic book report, so I'll mention only a few.

The seven chapters includes (the biblical number) seven categories; to entice you to start reading, they're about Religious Worship as ...

(1)Political Rhetoric
(2)Partisan Politics
(3)Public Policy Promotion
(4)Political Messaging
(5)Political Space
(6)Inherent Political Action
(7)Politics

So many aspects of our lives as Christians to consider! Whenever someone complains about "politics" in the church in a club, or anywhere, I remind them "to be human is to be political." At least that's been the case since humans moved away and grew their affiliation groups larger than Abraham of Ur's nuclear family. Are our public prayers as pastors, as lay people, as politicians, or as office holders directed only to Divinity, or are they news bulletins and hortatory speeches primarily intended for the human audience? Is God's political party red, blue, purple, or other? Does God even "do" politics? Given that Jesus died from the actions of imperial powers, God clearly has been majorly involved not only in religious practices, but also in political, cultural, and general human endeavors of every kind.

When we interpret scripture, have we gotten into the irresponsible habit of imposing our perspectives and predilections onto the scriptural texts―eisegesis? Or do we at least attempt faithfully to extract and apply scripture's perspectives onto our decisions and into our daily lives―exegesis? It can be close to impossible to separate out our social, cultural, and political experiences from the witness of scripture. Faithfully contextualizing texts that come from a very different culture and that variously are between 4,000 and 2,000 years old always is difficult and dangerous. They didn't have parliamentary government, the great republic's imperium in imperio, internet fund-raisers, or corporate lobbying, and it's truly impossible to overlay a lot of scripture injunctions onto our current ways of being and living. A king like the other nations? The parliament that appears so effective for that country in the other hemisphere that also has a much smaller, far less diverse population?

The book's early chapters that dissect and analyze the content of praying, preaching, campaigns, etc. became confusing, mind-boggling, dull and repetitious. A lot of that information would be more clearly presented as a chart or in a table. My favorite chapter and probably the best-written and most clearly expressed is chapter 5, "Religious Worship as Political Space." Partly because public and liturgical space is a favorite topic of mine, partly because I know about Friendship Park and ongoing concerns about the international border between USA and Mexico. I've participated in the annual Posada sin Fronteras at least twice, but that was before the feds put up yet another barrier wall to interfere even more with interactions between the two countries.

Probably due to my being in several state of disarray at the time, despite being online a lot, I'd missed out hearing out and participating in Election Day Communion on Election Day Night in 2012, but I'll be looking for one in 2016!

Brian Kaylor's vision and resulting content of Sacramental Politics is important for anyone, but the entire book needs a thorough, tight, no-holds-barred editing. Many paragraphs are long and unclear, and Sacramental Politics probably wins the prize for total number of parenthetical remarks and observations. Most of those could be eliminated and their content expressed in other ways. Many probably aren't even necessary! I noticed several misspellings that an editor probably would have caught and changed, and it's Agnus Dei - not Angus Dei - something autocorrect most likely didn't know. Also, despite the literary convention of sometimes using a noun as an adjective and that I like a lot, "Episcopalian" is the noun, "episcopal" the descriptive adjective. It may feel like another minor quibble, but it would be good if Kaylor would indicate United Methodist if that's the church body he's referring to, and in a similar way ELCA/ Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or PC(USA) Presbyterian Church USA if those are his referents. Because there also are more conservative - rather than progressive mainline - denominations with the names "methodist, lutheran, and presbyterian," it's important to specify which. Also, I found almost every one of the quotes from other documents or sources extremely interesting, so why not format them in the same easily-readable type size as the rest of the text, yet still indent it in blockquote style?

If the author edits and updates this book, it would be wise for him to run the content past people actively involved in each Christian tradition. For example, some Lutherans and other protestants offer an option for the private, individual confession that Roman Catholics nowadays call the sacrament of reconciliation, but like most other protestants, Lutherans claim only two actual sacraments: baptism and holy communion. Although Latter-day Saints often refer to their main weekly worship service that features the bread and cup of Holy Communion as "Sacrament Meeting," they use the terminology of ordinance rather than sacrament, so no, the LDS church does not have only one sacrament, but quite a few ordinances. The first church of my involvement was American Baptist-USA, but I'm not acquainted with current liberal baptist practices and even if I were involved in a community of baptists, with their truly local polity my experience might be far different from most others. Martin Luther's Two Kingdoms theology confuses even those from a solid confessional Lutheran background, but briefly, none of the Reformers could imagine any aspect of life being outside God's divine sovereignty.

If any congregations, pastors, judicatories or even lone solitary individuals would dare, they need to read and consider this book! Because Sacramental Politics focuses almost exclusively on the USA, they'll discover God never has been a Democrat of any era or any variety, a Republican from any place or space, a Libertarian, a Communist or a member of the Green party, or even a declared Independent. But you know, God still is passionately political!

The book includes scores of useful references and an index.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

 

It is an election year and so the circus begins again. Republicans and Democrats have begun Caucusing. If you examine where the candidates of both parties stand on various issues, you will see evidence of a great divide in the American political consciousness. Democrats and Republicans share increasingly little common ground. However both parties employ a common a strategic use of religious language in support of their divergent political aims.

Brian Kaylor (Ph.D, University of Missouri) is the Communications and Engagement leader at Churchnet. He is also a journalist who has taught political communication at James Madison University. Sacramental Politics  examines the way religion is co-opted in the political sphere and suggestively explores the political nature of Christian praxis.

Kaylor calls the use of religion in politics, 'transubstantiated rhetoric,' and pulls up plenty examples from the past decades.  The first part of his book, Kaylor considers 'the obvious examples of worship as political action': when politicians pray, speak at or attend religious gatherings or church services, or when clergy speaks up on political issues, parties or candidates. In the second half of the book, he turns his focus towards the non-partisan, but altogether political/religious acts: communion, baptism, confirmation, confession, etc.

This is a well-researched book. Kaylor presents many examples from past and current politicians, all documented with copious footnotes. He shows how politicians use religion to justify their ends (i.e. praying campaign slogans) and to project certainty (52). While the Right is the more overtly religious, the political left also makes use of religious rhetoric.

It is the second part of the book that I think is the most interesting. Here Kaylor explores the political dimensions of religious ritual (focused particularly of Christian religious ritual). The power of ritual is not just about forming you into a good American, but the idea is that things like liturgy, Eucharist or Baptism and sacred song makes you into something else. Quoting William Cavanaugh, Kaylor writes, "The Liturgy does more than generate interior motivations to be better citizens. The liturgy generates a body, the Body of Christ--the Eucharist makes the church" (158).  He discusses how religious ritual transcends and calls into question, partisan allegiance. He also shows examples of how church worship and religious practice provided the wherewithal to take stands for civil rights (in the case of MLK or Clarence Jordan) or Nationalism (like the Mennonites).

Kaylor is descriptive of the way religion and politics meld in the American political landscape. He argues that religion inherently carries with it political implications:

[S]everal different types of political actions are possible within religious worship. It may be partisan or nationalistic, or it might serve to offer allegiance to an alternative rule; it may promote public policies or political messages, or it might serve to create a space for doing politics differently. Regardless of which political response is undertaken, religious worship carries  political messages, expectations, and deeds. (225).

The central argument of this book, pushes us toward a conscious awareness of the political implications of our own faith. Kaylor wants to move us beyond partisan religious rhetoric to see how our religious practice shapes us into an alternative polis. Kaylor wants us to see that our worship is political, and therefore political worship is a political act (193). This helps us imagine new possibilities.

Kaylor has plenty of examples from the Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton, and Reagan administrations. Carter gets few mentions, and George H.W. Bush is missing from his analysis, but the general principles still apply. The book was published in 2015 before the players in this election were sorted out. Thus he covers some of the major players of partisan politics for this cycle (i.e. folks like Rubio, Cruz, Huckabee) but doesn't address other significant players like Donald Trump, or Bernie Sanders.  I  did notice a couple of textual errors(i.e., he mistakenly calls Wayne Grudem, 'Wayne Gruden' on page 60), nothing major. Kaylor's analysis is comprehensive but not exhaustive and certainly more can be added to his argument as this election season shakes out.

This book has a very Mennonite-y feel (which I like).  Kaylor's arguments reminded me of similar ones made by Hauerwas, and Yoder, though they aren't cited in the text (he cites Cavanaugh which is enough).  I give this four stars.

note: I received this from SpeakEasy on Tap in exchange for my honest review.

[Fr. River · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sacramental Politics by Brian Kaylor is a book that looks at how religion has been usurped, and compromised in the political process of the United States. Each party, and each candidate each grab hold of the Bible in their campaigns. Hilary Clinton we are told was follows Christ in the social justice process of her Methodist background. President Obama carries a Bible with him he opens "occasionally". The Republicans are even more outrageous basically claiming that God himself/herself speaks to them in the process of political choice. The issues of the cultural wars are fought out with each party with God on their side. We have gone to war and kill in the name of God. This is idolatry.

For the God of the Bible is a political God whose theology is best summed up in this Scripture from Micah: "He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humble with your God." (6:8).

It is a good book, even though the author seems repetitive through out the whole book.
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