Capitol: Sacred?

Last week I have wrote about my disapproval of what happened at the Capitol on January 6th here: Wicked is the Doctrine of Regeneration through Chaos.  In that article I mentioned the danger of the doctrine of regeneration through chaos.

But there’s something I want to say about the response of some who condemned the incident that I’m concerned about biblically.  It is a biblical point that is important for the Christian.

I noticed that some bring in religious terminology to talk about the Capitol.  What was fascinating to me is how some of the people that invoked the sacred are also the same ones who would condemn American nationalism or American exceptionalism or a vision of America as Messianic.

For example a friend of mine said this:

The images and videos which showed just how far the perpetrators were able to invade some of our most sacred political spaces, and the callous, victorious ways some of these protestors desecrated these spaces, making off with trophies.

So I thought I do a search and found that there’s also a number of politicians that used the same religious terms to describe the Capitol.

Joe Biden said “an assault on the most sacred of American undertakings: the doing of the people’s business” (Source).

Congress member Brian Higgins (D) said “The US Capitol is a sacred space – a building at the literal center of our capital and central to our democracy” (Source)

Nick Langworthy, Chairman of the New York State Republican Committee said “Our Capitol is a sacred symbol of our great nation.” (Source).

Strangely I’ve even seen the mainstream media calling the Capitol “sacred space” too and have high pitch religious fervor talking about it.

I don’t see the Capitol as a more sacred space though I do see it is politically a very important political place for our nation.  I want to really keep that religious language nationalism weaned off, be it from the left or the right.  I’m often surprised at how some people (not all) from the Left think that political idolatry can only be exclusively committed by those politically on the Right with nationalism and worship of the government…when some then turn around and see the government as a Savior or see the will of the People as the equivalent of the Divine mandate.  Using religious language and terminology is throwing gas to the fire in my opinion not to mention I don’t feel comfortable theologically and biblically to say it that way because of past historical religious baggage where Statism is baptized with religious language for political purposes and agenda that doesn’t align with Scripture.  Yet when I say all this that doesn’t mean I don’t love this county.   I get the gist that this event interfered with something very important in a very important political place during the timing of an important event that is part of the bed rock of our Constitutional Democratic Republic.  But let’s call that political and Constitutional instead of sacred.

It is fascinating how no matter how secular when people want to capture the concept of gross violation the spiritual and divine is invoked, as if one can’t totally run away from it and suppress it.  Reminds me of Romans 1:18 and following.