Summary of text [comment] page 61-62

[In the late 1700s, the American revolutionaries tried circumvent the establishment of a sovereign religion in two ways.

First, they amended their Constitution.

Second, they placed public works in the hands of the states.

They knew that public works would be sites for infrasovereign ambitions. For example, “building a sports stadium at taxpayer’s expense” may not seem religious because “it appears to be a sensible construction”. Stadiums are supposed to increase economic activity.

Critical inquiry is supposed to stop at this sensical statement. Self-declared “not religious” postreligionist (enlightenment) believers will insist that exploration stop at this explanation.

However, even “a cursory anthropological examination of so-called sports stadiums produced by human civilizations” readily demonstrates that they imply more than “economic activity”. They are cult sites for civic religions.]