The Right Religious Tradition, Part IV

Let's Try to Keep it Civil

Five weeks ago, I began an analysis of religion in the context of the culture war. Specifically:

let’s put ourselves in the mindset of game developers creating a simulation, something like Civilization or Master of Orion. It is traditional in these types of games that the players can choose cultures, religions, alien species, and so on for their civilizations, with each choice having pros and cons that affect their likelihood of success. It is also traditional that players be given customization options to, e.g. create their own from the game’s building blocks.

Our imaginary game starts in 2025 and is a simulation of the future of America. As a player, we run a “faction” of the culture war. Let us imagine ourselves as the player controlling the right-wing faction in an imaginary Sid Meier’s Civilization: Culture War and that we must choose or create the religion that will give our faction the best chance to succeed.

From there I introduced the framework for our analysis and explaining the videogame tier system (S, A, B, C, D, E, F) we’d use to rate the religions. Since then we have evaluated Orthodox Christianity, Catholic Christianity, and Protestant Christianity. None of them has reached higher than A Tier.

This week we’ll review the American Civil Religion. Since these are sensitive matters for which I prefer a more selective readership, this article, and all other articles in the Right Religious Tradition series, is for subscribers only. (Don’t despair, free subscribers; I am interlacing open access blogging throughout the project.)