One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America
Language: English
Pages: 384
ISBN: 0465049494
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
As Kruse argues, the belief that America is fundamentally and formally a Christian nation originated in the 1930s when businessmen enlisted religious activists in their fight against FDR’s New Deal. Corporations from General Motors to Hilton Hotels bankrolled conservative clergymen, encouraging them to attack the New Deal as a program of “pagan statism” that perverted the central principle of Christianity: the sanctity and salvation of the individual. Their campaign for “freedom under God” culminated in the election of their close ally Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.
But this apparent triumph had an ironic twist. In Eisenhower’s hands, a religious movement born in opposition to the government was transformed into one that fused faith and the federal government as never before. During the 1950s, Eisenhower revolutionized the role of religion in American political culture, inventing new traditions from inaugural prayers to the National Prayer Breakfast. Meanwhile, Congress added the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance and made “In God We Trust” the country’s first official motto. With private groups joining in, church membership soared to an all-time high of 69%. For the first time, Americans began to think of their country as an officially Christian nation.
During this moment, virtually all Americans—across the religious and political spectrum—believed that their country was “one nation under God.” But as Americans moved from broad generalities to the details of issues such as school prayer, cracks began to appear. Religious leaders rejected this “lowest common denomination” public religion, leaving conservative political activists to champion it alone. In Richard Nixon’s hands, a politics that conflated piety and patriotism became sole property of the right.
Provocative and authoritative, One Nation Under God reveals how the unholy alliance of money, religion, and politics created a false origin story that continues to define and divide American politics to this day.
and states, issued official proclamations that urged citizens, in Warren’s words, to spend the day reflecting upon “the blessings we enjoy through Freedom under God.”60 That night, fifty thousand residents attended a massive rally at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Organized under the theme “Freedom Under God Needs You,” the night featured eight circus acts, a jet plane demonstration, and a fireworks display that the local chapter of the American Legion promised would be the largest in the entire
any formal organization of religious leaders to work on our behalf. However, this might be done in an informal way.”46 While Graham insisted he could never reveal his political leanings, he spent much of the campaign dropping what seemed to be considerable hints. On domestic matters, Graham had long been sounding Republican themes of rolling back the welfare state and liberating business leaders to operate on their own. But on foreign policy too, Graham closely followed the Republican script for
struggles against stronger foes. But in the 1940s, Disney’s politics took a sharp turn to the right. In 1941, a bitter strike at his company led him to denounce “Communist agitation” in a full-page ad in Variety. The day after Pearl Harbor, Disney was stunned when the US Army abruptly commandeered his studio for 9780465049493-text.indd 128 1/23/15 12:38 PM PITCHmEN FOR PIET y [ 129 ] seven months’ use as a supply base. During the war, the government never paid him for some propaganda shorts
Pledge of Allegiance and made “In God We minded clergymen in the 1930s to fight the antichrist they most feared: Franklin Roosevelt’s Trust” the country’s first official motto. With private groups New Deal. Kruse convincingly argues that the rise of the religious right over the next decades joining in, church membership soared to an all-time high grew out of these antiliberal politics, not the other way around. ‘Church and State’ in America of 69 percent of Americans. Deal: Industrial
office gross of $2.5 million. Across 9780465049493-text.indd 144 1/23/15 12:38 PM PITCHmEN FOR PIET y [ 145 ] America, it sold nearly twenty-two million tickets in its first year of release. Even today, it still ranks as the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time, with receipts measured in constant dollars.32 Yet the most lasting legacy of The Ten Commandments was its marketing campaign. As he prepared for the debut, DeMille worked with the Fraternal Order of Eagles on an ambitious plan to