Book review by Michael Goldenkranz
One Nation Under God: How
Corporate America Invented
Christian America by Kevin Kruse
Did you know that the words “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust,” on our dollar bill, came to life during the 1950s under Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower’s presidency?
Whether freedom’s a gift from God, Government or just another word for nothing left to lose, we are grateful that we get to choose.
Princeton’s Kruse shows us that America as a Christian nation, was a well-coordinated and orchestrated effort happening in the 1930s and ‘40s. Industrial titans and business lobbyists rallied along with conservative religious leaders to undo the New Deal. And in the ‘50s with President Eisenhower’s more inclusive blessings, the Christian pitch to promote capitalism hit its zenith. Moreover, religion and God were also used to counter communism and win the Cold War. “According to the conventional narrative, the Soviet Union discovered the bomb and the United States rediscovered God,” Kruse says.
Who knew that starting in the 1930s — Abraham Verde, a Minister who ran Seattle’s own Good Will, would, as a result of his work in charities and then witnessing the massive Seattle labor strikes, team up with local business leaders and politicians to launch and help lead what I have dubbed the Conservative Combined Crusades of Business titans and clergy?
And who knew that while most of us legal eagles like to “add our two cents” to anyone else’s opinion, that the old two cents coin was the first money publicly to proclaim our trust in God?
Martin Luther purportedly called the printing press God’s highest act of grace for propelling the business of the gospel forward. But according to Kruse, we have capitalism and communism to thank instead. Reactions to the New Deal and communism as means to propel religious gatherings was a match made in heaven (or hell, depending on your view point!).
While those my age are more likely to inadvertently burn our toast rather than Old Glory, we may remember growing up and reciting the Pledge and even singing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” in elementary school. I even recall having Psalms read by public school teachers. And to this day we may find bibles in our hotel rooms.
Back in the day, “We liked Ike” (as the campaign sticker for Dwight Eisenhower said). Eisenhower was a uniter. And thankfully he sure threw a curve ball to those New Deal desecrators. Since the ‘30s they carefully curated and created entities to channel Christianity and religion as a crusade where it was initially intended to catalyze capitalism and defeat communism. But while Ike liked having God in the mix, he tried to be more religiously inclusive, and extended government help and support in accord with New Deal policies. While welcoming God into our country, it turned out Ike wasn’t the Christian libertarian some hoped for.
As a former New York state public school student (in the ‘50s and ‘60s), I observed the decline of school prayer after the proposed New York State Regents Prayer was reversed in 1962 by the United States Supreme Court in Engel v. Vitale. Some who are reading this may be like Justice Hugo Black, the decision writer, who for much of his life professed to be an agnostic: “Understand,” he once told his son, “I cannot believe, But I can’t NOT believe either.”
And as a graduate of Boston College Law back in the day, I read with interest how BC Law’s former Dean, Father Robert Drinan, when he became a Congressman, publicly pushed back on his fellow politicians clamoring for a Constitutional Amendment to permit and strongly pave a way to encourage prayers in public schools and public buildings. “For what reasons do 40 Senators seek to appear more pious than the leading churches that have condemned it and for what reason do you deem yourself more righteous than the Supreme Court which has curtailed it.”
Isn’t it ironic that Richard Nixon, who brought Sunday worship services into the East Room, and who in conjunction with Billy Graham appealed to the so-called Silent Majority with “Honor America Day “and mega rallies, ended up polarizing the nation? Did you know that both Nixon and Graham literally shared one (but different) finger salutes with the protesters they walked among? And before Reagan made “God Bless America” his Presidential sign off, it had been purportedly used “as is” only once before by a President in a major address: Nixon’s speech when he was seeking a way out of the Watergate scandal(!)
So, in closing my book review, I leave you with two questions:
Is the current composition of U.S. Supreme Court Justices of the same mind as the late Justice Black when he said, “The Founders Crafted the First Amendment to keep the state out of religion or religion out of the state?
Was Ronald Regan right when he said, “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we’ll be a nation gone under”?
Michael Goldenkranz is retired and likes to volunteer pro bono.
