top of page
Search

I Just Assumed…

  • Writer: Lucian@going2paris.net
    Lucian@going2paris.net
  • Feb 22, 2022
  • 2 min read

Near Falmouth, Florida

February 22, 2022


Further proof that my US history knowledge is wanting.


Found this book review interesting:


We’re often told that the United States is, was, and always has been a Christian nation. But in One Nation Under God, historian Kevin M. Kruse reveals that the idea of “Christian America” is an invention—and a relatively recent one at that. 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 alliance of money, religion, and politics created a story that continues to define and divide American politics to this day.

 
 
 

Recent Posts

See All
May 8, 2025

Hilton Head Fiddler’s Cove Unit 21H Did not get to First Tee Lowcountry or Hudson’s and did not text Blackie. Did walk the beach, go to...

 
 
 
May 7, 2025

Hilton Head Sunrise this morning was at 630 AM. On my walk, I came across this scene. The tracks are those of a female seaturtle. ...

 
 
 
May 6, 2025

Hilton Head Island I went to Barnicle Bill’s today to get a pound of shrimp. $15.99 per pound. I owner remembered me from last year! ...

 
 
 

7 則留言


dsmithuva75
2022年2月24日

It was not inserted on the coins, currency, and pledge before the 1950s because it was just a given. When the Cold War got hot, we did it to poke the Godless Commies in the eye. Little did we know that the Supreme Court would begin the separation of God from America in less than a decade....

按讚
dsmithuva75
2022年2月25日
回覆

Not a paradox -- it is Life! There is a dynamic tension to freedom because everyone has -- at least in this country -- a different idea of what freedom means. That is why I am a conservative -- I know of no other philosophical system that guarantees freedom to as many people because general order is maintained by a commonly accepted cultural set of Judeo-Christian values. As I've said before -- there are basically only two ways to maintain order in a society -- either order is maintained by a commonly accepted system of values, or it is kept by an increasingly powerful state.

We do not maintain peace and order in our own country of late because prosecut…

按讚

dsmithuva75
2022年2月23日

Kevin Kruse is a tool of the Left. The Judeo-Christian God was integral to the founding and expansion of this country. Many make much of the fact that Lincoln, for instance, never adopted or joined a particular Christian denomination/church . . . but he had a Bible on his bed-stead and read it every single day, touting it as the greatest book ever written. The Second Great Awakening was during the first half of the 19th Century and led to an explosion of Christian denominations. The latter half of the 19th Century saw a further expansion of those denominations and an explosion of missionary works around the world. And, as we all know, the early 20th Century saw a r…

按讚
Lucian@going2paris.net
Lucian@going2paris.net
2022年2月23日
回覆

No need to be sad about my state of understanding. Kruse is a Tar Heel which explains something. I was just surprised that the change to the Pledge and the coin dated from the 1950s. I assumed they were there from … the beginning of time! Tools to the left of me… tools to the right of me — reminds me of a Buffett song. 🤪. “If we weren’t all crazy, we would go insane.”

按讚
IMG_9453.jpeg

Welcome to my webpage.  I'm on a journey across the USA to visit all 22 Paris' - and points in between.  I'll be sharing thoughts, photos and videos along the way - as I search for answers to questions that bother me so.

 

Read More

 

About Me

© 2023 by Going Places. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page