Footnote

c Commentators have noted that nationalism, in effect, is a religion. Hence, people who are nationalistic are really worshipping that portion of the wild beast represented by the country in which they live. Regarding nationalism in the United States, we read: “Nationalism, viewed as a religion, has much in common with other great religious systems of the past . . . On his own national god the modern religious nationalist is conscious of dependence. Of His powerful help he feels the need. In Him he recognises the source of his own perfection and happiness. To Him, in a strictly religious sense, he subjects himself. . . . The nation is conceived of as eternal, and the deaths of her loyal sons do but add to her undying fame and glory.”​—Carlton J. F. Hayes, as quoted on page 359 of the book What Americans Believe and How They Worship, by J. Paul Williams.