I see civil religion as referring to that body of Ceremonies and beliefs. Which we do on public occasions. The singing of the national anthem the celebration of 4th of July the inauguration of a president the celebration of deaths of presidents. Those are instances in which a country together celebrates its existence under God thank for example of the wording of the nationalistic hymns, which depict our nation under God America the Beautiful the land of the Pilgrims Pride etc. Those are all elements in American Civil religion. They are a way. Americans understand themselves as a people under God so that the Civil religious ceremonies stand independently from the specifically denominational ceremonies on Sunday morning. I like to approach American Civil religion through the analysis of materials in popular culture. And in particular I would like to try to relate the thesis or the Captain America complex to the question of the land that American attitudes toward the land the American sense of mission shaped during the Puritan Era. a mission to usher in the kingdom of God by destroying God's enemies supplies the key off to the initial conquest of the land. And to its subsequent cleansing as background for that general idea. I would refer you to study such as Roderick Nash's Wilderness and the American mind in which He suggests that early Puritan thinkers. I conceived their mission of civilizing America as a mission, which would break the power of evil. He cites from John higginson's riding in 1697. Which describes how a Wilderness was subdued quote? Time Town directed Church of settled in a place where there had been nothing before but heathenism idolatry and devil worship the New England colonists. He went on saw themselves as Christ army or Soldiers of Christ in a war against the wilderness. That peculiar sense of mission is visible and here I lay out my second. Hypothesis is visible now in popular culture and it's thoroughly secularized form. that peculiar sense of zealous mission Which brings in a reign of righteousness by violently destroying evildoers? Is dominated by a complex of ideas namely the Captain America complex? The result of this is that problems with the land tend to be approached with battle terminology. Problems tend to be interpreted conspiratorially and solved with the age-old American tradition of violence. And that's one finds the peculiar phenomenon. Are people particularly outside the established lines of society? Conceiving of their own violent Crusade as somehow having a cleansing effect. I refer in this regard to a recent event in American history an assassination attempt on the American president by a woman by the name of Lynette Dallas Frome. Who said in an interview? In close proximity to the attempt on the president's life. She described her group as follows where nuns now and we wear red robes. We're waiting for our Lord. In this case, of course Manson and there's only one thing to do before you come down off the cross that is gets out of jail. And that's clean up the Earth. There's A peculiar mentality which surface is here Which interprets ecological problems in the culture? as somehow being very closely connected with the American political structure and Tends to believe that a crusade which wipes out the power holders in that political system would somehow cleanse the Earth? We have here it seems to me. In circles, which seemingly are far from the center of American power and embodiment of this precise set of ideas, which I'm suggesting May influence some of our thought about the land named it that when there are problems about the lad it's caused. They are caused by conspiratorial sources of evil and that the solution to such problems can most effectively be carried out through a violent kind of crusade. I like to begin laying out the The structure of the Captain America complex for you and to do this. I'd like to go back in comic book history to those of you who are fans of such media adamantine 41 months before the American entry into the second world war where we find the Genesis story of Captain America. It's a Genesis which relates to evil saboteurs blowing up the land. the opening shots has saboteurs with their malevolent gleeful faces blowing up the defense plants and As The Story Goes On to describe the established agencies of government are completely powerless to deal with this threat here. The generals are speaking to President Roosevelt. There's no stopping This Vermin there. So firmly entrenched in the Army ranks, I hesitate to give a confidential report even to my most trusted aide for the Army spotted with spies. It's useless. Here's a theme which is almost universally prevalent in American pop culture that the establishment that the democratically organised agencies of Law & Order cannot cope with true even when it rears its head. And it just so happens that the head of internal security in this comic book story a man by the name of Jay Arthur Grover has been working on a secret plan. how to turn the puny American male into a superhero who will be able to cope with this new source of evil a certain Professor reinstein has been experimenting with a serum which is about to administer to his first Victim a man by the name of Steve Rogers and dr. Reinstein says he don't be afraid sign. You're about to become one of America's saviors and he gives him the shot and sure enough and immediate transformation takes place. And the American superhero is born a figure who will be able to cope with this new threat to Eden. And as so often is the case with these comic book Genesis tails. Reinstein only got to use the serum once because of course there was an evil spy watching that experiment. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his Luger and shoots poor professor reinstein. Simultaneously shattering the only vial of serum which has been created. Steve Rogers uses his new found abilities to bring this bad guy to be and the spies absolutely terrified as Steve Rogers reaches for him and says come on out. You skunk terrified at this new American superhero who will bring the Invaders of paradise to be the bad guy fleas stumbles into the electrical equipment. And of course electrocutes himself and Captain America States the moral of our story nothing left of him, but charred ashes of Fate. He well deserves Genesis account. We see some of the structure of the Captain America complex. We see something of a change which took place in comic book review. At the time of the beginning of the second world war it's a time when popular culture was being used explicitly to Serve American Civil religion. A Jack Kirby who created the Captain America series with the help of Joe Simon confessed the Patriotic need which evoked this new pop culture superhero and he wrote The Times demanded it. I was seeing Mankind and its noblest terms human beings not as they are but as they might be the country was almost at War we needed a super-patriot to discern the shape of this patriotic ideal. I'd like in just a moment to show you another comic book sequence from 1942. But before doing that I'd like to point out the remarkable changes that emerged in comic book Outlook. Which I think connect very tightly with this complex of ideas. The Captain America complex. There was in these materials. In the early forties a decisive sharpening of stereotypes and simultaneously a heightening of the conspiracy theory of evil. Azarenka puts it in the history of comics in view of the axis threat in the early 1940s ordinary run-of-the-mill punching bag brutes and lemon yellow Oriental ancients just weren't good enough villains had to be wizened grotesqueries with gnarled hands and faces drooping jowls and phone blacked bangs Allegiant of hideous monstrosity sprang up to populate the pages and in contrast to that stereotype of evil beast shield Evil Dead, of course the Glorious figure of Captain America that magnificent right Fist and I that gleaming red white and blue uniform of pardon. The faded colors are Captain America's been through a number of battles since 1941. But he's a gleaming Majestic infallible figure a symbol of the American virtue and Power in one of the histories of the comics. He's referred to as a cumulative God that symbolize the inner reality of man. He was the American truth. No, I think you can see these features surfacing in the next sequence that I'm going to show you we moved to 1942 wine in a training camp in California private Steve Rogers and his sidekick Bucky Barnes hear the news or Japanese germ warfare and Steve says this is amazing and Bucky says those murderous be killing those poor Chinese with germ warfare and at that moment in the comic book story the scene shifts to Japan wear a certain Professor togu has moved from his development of the germ warfare into vampire Secrets here. You see togu saying announcing gentleman. I have learned the secrets of the vampire. He has developed the serum which will turn the puny Japanese. Into a magnificent flying vampire bat. He takes a little vial of this serum jumps in a little Japanese submarine comes to the west coast of the United States lands and climbs up on a mountain takes his vial of serum and turns into a menacing vampire who screams out blood. I must have blood of American swine. I'll spare you some of the episode but over and over again the vampire attacks the American Army bases in California. And is it as you might expect the United States Army is utterly impotent to cope with the Vampire and over and over again when the general stumble all over themselves and the Air Force flakes out at the last minute Captain America and Bucky slip into their pup tent change into their superhero uniforms worn under there US Army khaki and fly into battle, but always at the last minute those magnificent wings. Allow the vampire to get away in the climactic scene Captain America gives the vampire good right blow to the jaw. They are having a duel in a deserted California Castle is obviously the Hearst castle in California. I won't go into the possible symbolism of that but for some reason the wings of the vampire don't work any crashes down to the pavement bashes his head open and that's the end of the vampire and Bucky Barnes asks our hero what happened as follows? A ray of sun struck him and like all vampires he changed back into human form. And now he needs the same and is all Mad Men Who meddle with Nature's dark secrets are two Heroes return to their pop dance. They return back to saying yes or no Sarah to Sergeant Duffy who is irritated because they lost another couple days of drill practice and you can figure out where they've been but before they start peeling potatoes, they send a letter to Japan which one it arrives there causes widespread Harry Caray. Add the content of that letter is as follows dear Japs. You're a vampire too has been taken care of. This is just to let you know the 130 million Americans will be seeing you soon. Our slogan for Japs keep dying Captain America and Bucky. All of the features which I set forth in the Captain America complex are crucial to comic book episodes like this and one could have taken episodes from any number of comic book stories. Hey series of interlocking ideas manifest themselves here. The first of which is a conspiracy theory of evil. In both of these stories. It's a conspiracy a bad guys, which are pictured as lying at the root of the second world war. It has nothing to do with the struggle for oil resources in the Pacific. Relating in some way to the American Oil Embargo against Japan in the summer of 41. It has nothing to do with the struggle for power and control of Europe. The second world war in these materials is caused solely by grotesque conspirators like togu or the saboteurs. With evil coming from a conspiracy a second feature of the Captain America complex becomes logical there was a definite tendency toward stereotyping. The enemy is pictured as demonic Bistro. The Japanese here have fanged teeth it have they no longer have fully human features on the Germans Sia. You have the Red Skull has the enemy who always fights Captain America The Red Skull is clearly more than human. He terrorizes even the Nazis themselves over and over again Captain America and Bucky managed to put down the Red Skull or kill him in some way, but he always emerges again resurrected somehow his power of everlasting life revealing. Is demonic origin and with the world of us divided between the pure good and the Pure Evil Captain America being the infallible pure Flawless hero. It follows that there's only one solution to social dilemma. That is violence. And these comic book stories violence is pictured as Redemptive. That is you can rid the world of evil. You can cleanse the land by ridding it of its conspiratorial sources of evil. The fists of the hero suffice in this genre, but there's a curious cork in these comic books, which I think is worth noting as we pass and that is the Captain America and Bucky never kill anyone. And both of these incidents that you saw fate intervenes the bad guys stumble into electrical wiring or fall off a cliff when they're trying to get away or just happened to cross a Sunbeam and their magic fails and they fall to the pavement and kill themselves. There is a profound Motif here which results in the division of responsibility fate always is responsible for the ultimate death of the bad guy and you cannot charge fate with homicide result is that the superhero cleanses the World by violence, but can never be brought to court. He is never directly responsible for the death of the baddie. And the consequences of this the connection of Fate always on the side of the good guys is a pattern of winning the good guys. And these materials always win the Saints always Prevail, even if Captain America has nothing but bare fish to fight against the wings of the vampire or against the Luger of the German Saboteur he will prevail What holds all of these motifs together is of course the Towering figure of the superhero himself the zealous superhero whose commitment to the National ideals allows him to go above and beyond the law. The mark of the zealous superhero is not simply his superhuman ability his capacity to fly his pure motivation. But also the fact that this red white and blue uniform is worn underneath. the Army khaki so long as the uniform of the American Soldier is on Steve Rogers. He submits to democratic control. He is part of a structure of Law & Order the moment. He takes that uniform off he has as it were an authority to go beyond beyond and above the law to carry out his Redemptive task to cleanse the World by a Lynch form of violence for which he can never be held responsible or which nevertheless transforms the world. Stop. What is the origin of this set of ideas, which seems to have such a hold on the American life and popular culture by would like to sketch out for you by hypothesis about the origin of the Captain America complex. I have to confess that my own. Research in this area went in a backwards fashion. It actually came out to the struggles in the Sioux City area during the Vietnam war and then my fellow Americans patterns of zealous commitment, which seemed to lead people into violent opposition of each other. I began as a Biblical scholar to probe into the biblical patterns of violent Redemption particularly the conquest to use the stories of the enactment of the band the superhero prophets like Elijah and Elisha who cleanse the world through violence and as I studied these patterns with my students, they pointed out to me over and over again the similarity in plot structure and idea between these biblical patterns and American pop culture. Stories they had seen on television comic books. They had recently written. And by pursuing those parallel connections the following hypothesis about American Civil religion emerged. It's a hypothesis that American Civil religion is really split into there are two diametrically opposed concepts of World Redemption in American pop culture prophetic realism, and the other I call zealous nationalism. Each of these has a concept of World Redemption. Does Alice I'd be leaving in World Redemption by the annihilation of enemies. The realistic side believing in World Redemption by coexistence under law. The premise of the entire construction, of course is earnestly to bison's thesis about America as the Redeemer Nation who has and has had from almost the beginning this peculiar sense of responsibility to all mankind to bring the benefits of democracy and Redemption across the world these two ideas of robe ademption. Have laid side-by-side against each other in American culture from the very beginning. Their origin can be traced to the spiritual origins of American National thinking the zealous ideal emerged with the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elijah who is annihilation of the bailiffs and people they consider to be false prophets were seen as decisive steps and bringing to buy in control of Canaan. The ideals of zeal are embodied in the book of Deuteronomy with its reinterpretation of the conquest and in the deuteronomic history materials, which bring to the for the annihilation pattern in the early Conquest stories. The climax of The zealous ideal in the Old Testament probably is in the Book of Daniel which interprets all of world history as a series of climactic battles, in which in the final climactic episode the Saints through no intervention of their own will be given control of the Earth because the last empire will be destroyed by violence that set of ideas of course surfaces in the New Testament in the Book of Revelation, which once again interprets the course of world history in terms of percent of violent battles. Now it's these ideals which I found. At the core of early Puritan interpretation of American History my analysis of Puritan sermons, for example showed an overwhelming concentration in Deuteronomy, Daniel and Revelation. So that early Americans interpreted themselves as Gods New Israel interpreted their battle against Wilderness and Indian Infidel and Catholic as a crucial campaign in which God was bringing the kingdom of God to Earth by the annihilation of the wicked. In American history a figure like John Brown would be an almost perfect embodiment of this zealous ideal in his Pottawatomie Creek Massacre and in the Harpers Ferry incident, he explicitly pattern his behavior after the Old Testament prophets Elijah Elijah and Jay Hue and in foreign policy Affairs in more recent times one will figure. John Foster Dulles as a clear a spokesman of this zealous attitude toward world history. But my hypothesis is that that is not the entirety of American Civil religion alongside that more violent Strand and interpretation of American Destiny lies the Humane tradition of coexistence under Constitution and law coexistence even among nations with adjudication of dispute between nations by law those ideals surfaced first with the Old Testament prophets Amos Hosea Jeremiah Isaiah for the first time became critical of violence at the hands of the chosen people and in the case of Amos and Isaiah in particular the concept for the first time in human history emerged of the adjudication of international dispute by International courts of law the theme of the United Nations building carved in the wall derived of course from Isaiah. In the New Testament those ideals of Humane coexistence were picked up by the historical Jesus and Paul Jesus cleansing of the temple and effort to retain an institution of coexistence between Gentile and Jew a coexistence which would allow enemies to live side-by-side and worship the same God Paul struggling throughout his career against zealots who followed every step of his way seeking to destroy him and his mission each of these thinkers Jesus and Paul reach back to the presidents in the great prophetic tradition and stand against the Zealot alternative in their own time Jesus, for example warning against the Great Rebellion, which was impending against draw a rebellion based on the zealous expectations that God would intervene with his angels on the side of the Saints when they took on the Roman Empire and Jesus skeptical of that warning. That approach to world history and politics would never work. Those ideals of Humane coexistence of competitors under law. game to the surface out of the horrible experience in Western culture of the Thirty Years War out of the Enlightenment out of the results of the British reformation and the British experiment with zealous rule embodied in the work of John Locke and others. Those Humane ideas of coexistence came ultimately to be embodied in the American constitutional system, which allows no branch of government. Total power assumes competitive relationships will perennially exist between groups in society and hopes to give no one a monopoly of power the Supreme spokesman of that prophetic ideal in American history is Abraham Lincoln second inaugural address saw at the time of national crisis and equal justice in which God was an acting his strange wrath on Mercy against both North and South in that horrendous struggle. Pointing to the ideal of coexistence between enemies under law as the ideal toward. What's the American Republic should strive and in foreign policy Affairs one thinks of figures like George Kennan in more recent times as embodying with some clarity the ideals of prophetic realism. But my hypothesis is that those two mutually contradictory approaches have been synthesized almost from the start in American Civil religion producing a complex of ideas in which one Crusades by violence for democratic coexistence ideals and the heavier side of American popular culture in particular comes from the zealous side of our heritage in particular in the decades since the Second World War. I think we have seen step-by-step the erosion of the tradition of constitutional restraint. And the emergence of patterns of zealous Behavior both within the government and outside both in the part of private citizens and the part of responsible government leaders. In which Zeal for their High cause LED them to violate the constitution allowed to use to which their allegiance was pledged. And it seems to me that it's that schizoid combination which we see in the peculiar attitude of Americans about the land. I think we see it in the strange kind of idealism almost the warring Marshall idealism with which Americans have viewed the land the great conservationist John Muir for example, writing in the last century that he sees Salvation in the preservation of wilderness and he speaks of the American struggle as one and I called him here between landscape righteousness. And the devil one thing is Bronson Alcott with his idealistic dream in which year old are for your land is the Asylum for the hope of man at their up anywhere is the second Eden to be planted. And what is the Divine seed is to bruise the head of evil and restore man to his rightful communion with God in the paradise of good. How is that rightful communion to be established? How is the head of evil to be bruised? It is to be bruised by the rule of the Saints. By the violent if necessary reforms and reactions of those who have the right to see that Altima Justice is accomplished. What I'm driving at here. Is the this complex set of ideas? Now is communicated to us and to our people not by reading of the Bible. Not by hearing long sermons as Puritan some of our Puritan forebears did on the books of Deuteronomy Daniel and Revelation. This is my opinion is communicated to us now in the means of popular culture. In television in the Saturday morning cartoons in the cartoons and a comic books that are children to read. Install Waze like the Six Million Dollar Man Star Trek Petrocelli, swapped dozens of other programs this concept of redeeming the world through violence is invited so that in popular culture. We have an affect a presentation of a worldview. Which gives people as ancient Mythic systems gave people a way to understand their world and how to respond to it at this point. I'd like to move out of the heavy analysis. And go back to a comic book series, which some of my students called my attention. They just come from the February March and April 1974 Captain America and Falcon comic books. I have to confess that I still don't have enough nerve to go down to the corner store in Sioux City and buy these things myself. You know, we old man that have to be careful about our reputations in Sioux City, but I think the episode this is 3 full episode which I'm going to compress is so interesting because it communicates the point. I'm driving at namely. That these crude popular materials give people in American culture today a way of responding to current history understanding current events and reacting to it. In these particular issues of the Captain America and Falcon the Watergate dilemma is explicitly interview. The good Captain America the symbol of American unity and unselfishness who's devoted his life to affording. The nation's enemies is Being Framed. And then our opening episode Captain America has just tracked down his recent bad guy fellow by the name of the Tumblr gives him a light glow on the jaw. But someone has been stay I placed in the wings and has simultaneously with a silencer gun shot the Tumblr so that it appears that Captain America's light blow to the jaw has affected murder and at this point We Begin our story Captain America has just given the Tumblr the blow and the scene comes the man Whose Line is it all up and Slick Madison Avenue add Man by the name of Clinton Hart Mr. Hardiman has police stationed in the wings and they of course are ready to arrest and bring to jail our framed reader. And this of course presents Captain America with a very serious dilemma. He says these are Law Officers protecting everything I represent. I can't disobey them. But what if they do you are part of the setup? I want to see Law and Order man do when he's confronted with this kind of dilemma. Well. frosting the policeman aside Captain America breaks free to clear his own name. He flees of course, but with a bad conscience and leaning up against the light pole commiserating the fate of a Law and Order man. Now on the lam, he's hit from behind by the new Villa a man by the name of Moonbeam. Moonbeam is working for the Insidious. Mr. Hardiman. How to have a big dual but Moonbeams laser off owls are hero. He's put in jail by Moonbeam on suspicion of murder. Well hardeman's publicity campaign glorifies the new villain Moonbeam 9 Moonbeam in reality was nothing but a petty Thief who discovered the power of the Moonstone while breaking into a museum. This was appearing curiously enough for the Sioux City Museum got broken into but I don't think there's any connection Moonstone goes to work for hardeman's committee to regain American principles, otherwise known to comic book fans as c r a p a lovely counterpart to The Originators of the Watergate Caper The Creep now in order to further discredit our hero the crap team arranges to break our hero out of jail. They send their undercover group called the sanitation Squad to carry out this task and this presents a very serious dilemma for Captain America has it come to this the country polarized each willing to go to Violent means to achieve its hands and of course Captain America does not believe in violence, although in every episode. He's forced against his will to defend the right with his fists. This would be the breaking of Law & Order confirming everyone's suspicions of me. And so he decides of course not to let the sanitation Squad break him out of jail. They say we're the sanitation unit. We know what's best but Captain America says it isn't the right way. And so he tries to fight with him, but they're sleeping gas knocks him out and he's taken out of jail against his will and so the framing of Captain America goes on he has a big fist fight with the bad guys after he wakes up from his sleeping gas and then he confronts The Dilemma once again and hear you see the shine the the scene. He has the undercover sanitation Squad in hand. And he says I'm back to square one either. I dump these clowns off the police station or with myself or I track down a clue which may ultimately clear me. Will you submit to Law & Order or not? Well, of course He doesn't and he continues outside the law. I'll Overlook some of the other scenes here are he's joined by his black superhero colleague the Falcon Falcon declares his undying allegiance to our hero of the Falcons voice is taped and that tape is altered and what will avoid those things? I'll skip to the end of the comic book story. Or we have Captain America and falcon. Escaping from Moonstone here. I'll let you see our evil anti-hero the Moonstone here Captain America and Falcon are running away and they say you've got the law and unearthly powers on your side. We dare not risk, you're capturing us again. Here is the conspiratorial premise in the comic book story on the side of the bad guys discrediting the good guys are law and unearthly that is demonic forces. Well in the end of the sequence as far as I read in the comics that I had Captain America and Falcon run into a certain Professor X who's going to solve all the problem the man looks exactly like a bald-headed. Mr. Ehrlichman who says Mary. Mysteriously, I believe the group that hunt you is the same group that haunts us know what I'm driving at is this But these popular materials which embody the Captain America complex provide symbolic understanding to interpret current events. Even the discrediting of the national symbol system itself as embodied in the Watergate Caper and cover-up are explained conspiratorially. And readers are urged here either to emulate the superhero. And seek violent Redemption outside the law which is the pattern. I was in beanies Liberation Army and Miss Frome or to emulate the passive public whose task is to sit by and do nothing while caped figures clad intricate solve their dilemmas. Either way. I think the profoundly anti-democratic thrust of this material should be obvious. There lie at the root of the American sense of national identity to mutually exclusive definitions of national purpose prophetic realism and zealous nationalism. And the confused answer mixture of those two conflicting ideologies both found lying almost side by side in the religious source of our culture has led to the Curious impasse of the Civil religion debate itself. If you've had a chance to read the very interesting study or set of essays on American Civil religion by Russell Richie and Donald Jones. You'll find they're responsible critics such as Sydney Mead and Robert Vela who spoke your last week who have a positive appraisal of American Civil religion CA Transcendence set of symbols there which criticized current behavior and give American policymakers and ideal for which this drive but opposed to them equally responsible critics will herberg for example, I Herbert Richardson in the same set of essays. Arguing that the American Civil religion is fundamentally idolatrous and corrupt. It seems to me that the Captain America complex explains that odd dichotomy. The inconsistencies with an American Civil religion are caused not by The Caprice of Scholars. But by the fact that there lies within the American Civil religion to mutually exclusive sets of ideas to close here with a final set of comic book materials, which I think and Body in a very interesting way the idea of the Captain America complex pitched against itself. the schizoid state of American Civil religion In this particular comic book sequence, which some students coming from 1972. We have a bad Captain America who has attacked from behind the good new true Captain America and his black superhero colleague and his girlfriend Sharon. I'll take the story up in the middle. And here we have the bad Captain America having tied up the black superhero colleague Captain America himself and Captain America's girlfriend Sharon. And of course as is usually the case with the superhero romances on nothing ever happens. She is a sort of superheroine who is just as a segmented is he is sexually but any event I want you to know who I am and how I became this way before I kill you and he introduces himself as the other Captain America of the 1950s. Who rediscovered the formula to make the American super soldier? Took that formula what she found in Ryan Stine's papers and even underwent plastic surgery so that he would look like his lifetime model or Idol. He's just ready to enter the service of the CIA where he's told you will be America's savior when unfortunately the Korean truce was signed and the head of the CIA whose face looks very familiar to those who remember recent newspaper accounts tells him you are plans are canceled Captain America says, but what you can't do this to me What are friends what does an unemployed superhero do? He becomes a college history professor. And here we have Steve Rogers Professor Steve Rogers showing his uniform to his favorite student who takes over the role of Bucky Bucky is the only one who knows that really deep down underneath the Scholastic Garb of this history Professor is the superheroes heart and he said wouldn't you like to wear that uniform and Captain America says, oh Lord by nothing. I want more the thought of helping Americans in helping all freedom-loving people doing my small part to say this crazy Planet the same time giving the world a symbol of peace and Brotherhood something to clean to. Yes. I want to but the times are against it. Well, it just so happens that Professor Rodgers and his favorite student driving into New York City. I want to hear over the car radio that the Red Skull has turned up at the UN building and he's holding the secretary-general hostage. So the Reds can fill all their demands for two men just happen to have their red white and blue uniforms in the trunk. They pull into an alley find a telephone booth and live again to the cries of the excited crowd. They fly into The Fray here. You see them dashing for the UN building in the crowd says his Captain America and Bucky yippee. They're the ones who can handle the Red Skull and do a man as usual and seemed to be restored as Sentinels of Liberty. And then they look around for other batteries to attack and that's when things got off the track Captain America and Bucky begin finding enemies everywhere at Harlem and wasp. We found that most people who weren't pure-blooded Americans where commies something went wrong with the Captain America complex. So that somehow it's now fighting against American ideals themselves. Well the authorities in this critical situation have to do something and of course, they don't want to put Captain America and Bucky on trial. They don't want to make them be in jail. And so they put them in a deep freeze. We don't know where this battery is probably in Southern California somewhere. It's a form of cryogenic deep freeze fat Heroes Captain America and Bucky scientist says we found no cure for them sir. But by using the new science of cryogenics appointment defrizzing Beast tank will keep him in suspended animation. They'll never die here in the politician respond. Thank God for that at least officially we disapproved of them, but they meant a lot to America before they went bad. There's the line that interest me. There's a sense even in these primitive materials that something went wrong with the Captain America complex. It went bad somehow. Well, everything went fine until mr. Nixon went to China in 1972. And the man in charge of the Deep Freeze bat was so incensed over recent developments that he put his hand to the dial and turned it up Captain America and Bucky Fallout come out of their isolation in the cryogenic bat and say to their Scientist friend whatever forget this foul and we'll get those Reds right after we get a Homefront traitor. But Captain America have today you told us about well, of course at the end of this episode. You know that those puny ropes, we're not going to hold the new true Captain America falcon and Sharon at the end. They stand free of those ropes ready for that final battle against the malignant Captain America. He's had it his way till now now it's time for The Showdown and we'll tell you about The Showdown and the very next episode. on the point of driving at is this despite the sense that the Captain America complex has somehow turned against America itself. The explanation for that and the solution of it remain exactly the same. the conspiratorial concept of evil the stereotyping of the world into good guys and bad guys now a bad Captain America and a good one and Redemption by what means the same means the old Captain America uses namely The Showdown Redemption through violence, which leads me to my conclusion. That's a dilemma in American Civil religion. And part of the Dilemma that you and I have as we approach problems of the land. Is that within most of us and certainly Within Myself there is a schizoid consciousness. a set of zealous ideals and means Redemption lying alongside a set of idealistic Humane constitutional principles And it seems to me that the way we must approach American Civil Religion Today Is by grappling with the Mythic forms in popular culture which in so powerful away and body these zealous ideals to our people. I think there's no chance. Then we can get rid of Mythic materials. I don't see if he's ability of trying to eliminate American Civil religion from the American Heart. It seems to me the healthy approach is an open vigorous dialogue a kind of dialogue such as you're sponsoring here and Madison which deals with the sources of American Civil religion with its value system. Our task it seems to me is not to rid ourselves of these myths but rather to humanize them not to shed these mythic patterns for some unconscious replacement. Solve the mystery of Mythbusters emerges to suck Us in ever deeper into the Plaid rather. It seems to me our task is to bring these mythic forms to Consciousness. Bring them out in the open. And thereby, hopefully the cleanse the Captain America complex if it's zealous conspiratorial violent stereotypical components and to return to the realistic side of our own American Heritage to the side of constitutional adjudication of disputes the side of coexistence under law.