Freedom Under God

The provocative and authoritative history of the origins of Christian America in the New Deal era 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 belief that America is fundamentally and formally Christian originated in the 1930s. To fight the "slavery" of FDR's New Deal, businessmen enlisted religious activists in a campaign for "freedom under God" that culminated in the election of their ally Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. The new president revolutionized the role of religion in American politics. He inaugurated new traditions like the National Prayer Breakfast, as Congress added the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance and made "In God We Trust" the country's first official motto. Church membership soon soared to an all-time high of 69 percent. Americans across the religious and political spectrum agreed that their country was "one nation under God." Provocative and authoritative, One Nation Under God reveals how an unholy alliance of money, religion, and politics created a false origin story that continues to define and divide American politics to this day.

In 1940, on the eve of the United States entry into World War II, the late Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) published FREEDOM UNDER GOD. This new, annotated "Just Third Way Edition" of a neglected classic includes an in-depth foreword, as well as a bibliography and index not included in the original. While FREEDOM UNDER GOD addresses the loss of true freedom throughout the world, Sheen's special concern was freedom of religion. This is under increasing attack today. Individual life as well as marriage and the family are also in grave danger as the State continues to expand its power to fill the vacuum left by the growing powerlessness of ordinary people. Speaking to people of all faiths and philosophies, albeit from a "Catholic" perspective, then-Monsignor Sheen traced the rise of totalitarian State power in the first half of the 20th century to the fact that fewer and fewer people in America and throughout the world owned capital - what Sheen called "creative wealth." As Sheen argued, only widespread private property in capital has the capacity to restore the foundation of true freedom. The world needs the wisdom of Fulton Sheen now more than ever. The republication of FREEDOM UNDER GOD helps introduce the work of this pivotal thinker to a new generation of readers and students.

Reprint of an edition published in New York in 1937 by Oxford University Press.

The debate over the framers' concept of freedom of religion has become heated and divisive. This scrupulously researched book sets aside the half-truths, omissions, and partisan arguments, and instead focuses on the actual writings and actions of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and others. Legal scholar Michael I. Meyerson investigates how the framers of the Constitution envisioned religious freedom and how they intended it to operate in the new republic. Endowed by Our Creator shows that the framers understood that the American government should not acknowledge religion in a way that favors any particular creed or denomination. Nevertheless, the framers believed that religion could instill virtue and help to unify a diverse nation. They created a spiritual public vocabulary, one that could communicate to all—including agnostics and atheists—that they were valued members of the political community. Through their writings and their decisions, the framers affirmed that respect for religious differences is a fundamental American value, Meyerson concludes. Now it is for us to determine whether religion will be used to alienate and divide or to inspire and unify our religiously diverse nation.

Inscribed near a broken chain at the base of the Statue of Liberty are these words: Give me your tired, your poor; Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; The wretched refuse of your teeming shore; Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Lady Liberty proclaims freedom every day to anyone with a heart to hear her. Yet, although the opportunity to experience the benefits of legal freedom exists in our nation, many people still live in bondage to a number of injustices. In One Nation Under God, Dr. Evans addresses freedom, justice, economics, racism, education and politics from a kingdom perspective. Citizens will be moved to display biblical justice, thus working to build a society based on the foundational principles of God’s word. If God's people are to reverse the course that this nation is heading down, believers must care about what God cares about, and implement specific strategies to change this nation. This booklet is a part of the Life Under God series, a 5-book series adapted from the 5 sections found in The Kingdom Agenda, the legacy work of Dr. Tony Evans. This booklet is based on the “One Nation under God” section.

In Faith in Freedom, Andrew R. Polk argues that the American civil religion so many have identified as indigenous to the founding ideology was, in fact, the result of a strategic campaign of religious propaganda. Far from being the natural result of the nation's religious underpinning or the later spiritual machinations of conservative Protestants, American civil religion and the resultant "Christian nationalism" of today were crafted by secular elites in the middle of the twentieth century. Polk's genealogy of the national motto, "In God We Trust," revises the very meaning of the contemporary American nation. Polk shows how Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, working with politicians, advertising executives, and military public relations experts, exploited denominational religious affiliations and beliefs in order to unite Americans during the Second World War and, then, the early Cold War. Armed opposition to the Soviet Union was coupled with militant support for free economic markets, local control of education and housing, and liberties of speech and worship. These preferences were cultivated by state actors so as to support a set of right-wing positions including anti-communism, the Jim Crow status quo, and limited taxation and regulation. Faith in Freedom is a pioneering work of American religious history. By assessing the ideas, policies, and actions of three US Presidents and their White House staff, Polk sheds light on the origins of the ideological, religious, and partisan divides that describe the American polity today.

This inspirational book celebrates the faith and courage of members of a traditional church that -- in 20th century America -- still struggling for religious freedom. Their Greatest challenge is the ongoing legal battle against the 1990 Supreme Court decision citing peyote use to deny the Native American Church the First Amendment right to 'the free exercise of religion'. Legislation providing an exemption to the Native American Church was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1997. The eloquent personal testimony offered by Church members from many different tribes demonstrates the spiritual strength of this religious tradition and makes it clear that peyote is not used to obtain 'visions' but to heal the body and spirit and to teach righteousness. Peyote meetings play, which stress abstinence from alcohol, truthfulness, family obligations, economic self-suffering, service, and prayer. This book is important reading for any one who cares about spiritual values, political process, and the individual's freedom to worship according to the dictates of conscience.

Building from the stories in Under God, each of the 60 four-page readings opens with Scripture and then presents a theme--including justice, mercy, and sacrifice, among others--illustrated in the lives and events of our country's past. Excerpts from Under God are married with deeper biblical exploration of these virtues, followed by tips on how they can be put into action in young people's lives today. Questions for further study and discussion starters facilitate the use of Living Under God in group settings.