In the early Cold War, churches and civic organizations, together with government officials, built a civic religion to help mobilize for the Cold War–a war without end against a shadowy enemy (the international communist conspiracy) who could be anywhere. So the Eagles put the Ten Commandments on courthouse lawns, and thousands of people petitioned the President and Congress for official Days of Prayer. Congress during the Eisenhower administration made “In God We Trust” our national motto and put it on our paper currency, along with adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.” The Republican Party declared Ike the “spiritual leader of our times,” the President who would start the annual National Prayer Breakfast that continues to take place every February. This is also the time when Billy Graham rose to prominence, the first to be able to hold a revival on federal property, the one who was said to have convinced Eisenhower to run, the the minister to the Presidents.

The Cold War’s over, but we’re in another that has no clear end, another against a shadowy enemy that could be anywhere–the Global War on Terror. But our civic religion is in tatters. There is no longer widespread acceptance of “Godtalk” in the public square. There is opposition to religious state rituals. There are growing differences among Christians over their role and action in the political world. What will mobilize us this time to fight this new war without end?

Pop culture–the world of commodified entertainment–may be filling that void. We buy self-help books written by pastors of mega-churches. We listen to slick contemporary Christian music on secular channels. We go to blockbuster movies that give us Bible stories in digestible formats (well, Passion of Christ was more shock theater). The latest film of this kind, according to Slate, is Evan Almighty:

Did anyone involved with Evan Almighty actually read the Noah story? You know, the part when God drowns the entire world, when “all in whose nostrils was the merest breath of life, all that was on dry land, died. All existence on earth was blotted out, man, cattle, creeping things, and birds of the sky; they were blotted from the earth.” Now, I’m no great religious scholar, but it doesn’t take Pope Benedict to see that the Noah story is not a charming little tale about familial love, but a terrifying lesson about our dependence on God: a warning that we are alone in the world and always at the mercy of a wrathful and demanding Lord.

For the full story, go here.

(p.s. I’ll be away for a week, so don’t mistake my silence for disregard).