But, still, honor is important among us. "He was an honorable man" is still a moving thing to say, at a (man's) funeral. The notion, and the liturgy that invokes the notion, show us believers that civil religion has a hold on us, and that we need a place where we can sit down together and think things out.2 6 This argument of mine needs to get beneath simple contrasts between biblical faith and civil religion. We believers need to reason together, plopped down as we are in the middle of the present. We believers include naval officers and lawyers and teachers of children and employees of the Social Security Administration. What are we supposed to do when our faith confronts honor in America's civil faith?

In aid of a more careful look, I will try to describe three positions taken and being taken by believers and teachers of believers who have tried and who try to be helpful. The first of these points to what seems to be reality. The second objects to what seems to be reality. The third withdraws from what seems to be reality.