Quotes from Kevin M. Kruse

President Eisenhower, like many Americans, is a very fervent believer in a very vague religion.

THE ORIGINAL PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, much like the Constitution itself, did not acknowledge the existence of God. Its author, Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister from Rome, New York, was a decidedly religious man, but when he wrote the pledge in the 1890s he described himself as something that would seem an oxymoron in Eisenhower's America: a "Christian socialist.

Through all these various revisions, the pledge remained godless. But as the Christian libertarian movement of "under-God consciousness" swept the nation in the early 1950s, a campaign to add that phrase to the pledge began in earnest. The idea originated with the Knights of Columbus, a leading Catholic fraternal organization.

In the end, the Declaration was not a rejection of government power in general but rather a condemnation of the British crown for depriving the colonists of the government they needed. In order to reframe the Declaration as something rather different, the Committee to Proclaim Liberty had to edit out much of the document they claimed to champion.

Hollywood got into the act, with director Cecil B. DeMille helping erect literally thousands of granite monuments to the Ten Commandments across the nation as part of a promotional campaign for his blockbuster film of the same name.

mid-1950s, when Americans underwent an incredible transformation in how they understood the role of religion in public

What then of the honest atheist? Philosophically speaking, an atheistic American is a contradiction in terms." The Presbyterian praised atheists for being "fine in character" and "good neighbors" but suggested they were "spiritual parasites." "I mean no term of abuse in this," the minister added. "A parasite is an organism that lives upon the life force of another organism without contributing to the life of the other.

While Billy Graham welcomed the adoption of the National Day of Prayer, he saw it as merely the beginning of the political and moral transformation needed to save the nation. In late 1951, he insisted that "the Christian people of America will not sit idly by during the 1952 presidential campaign. [They] are going to vote as a bloc for the man with the strongest moral and spiritual platform, regardless of his views on other matters.

For many viewers, though, the most memorable part of the parade was the very first float. Anointed "God's Float" by its creators, it consisted of a replica of a house of worship with large photos of churches and synagogues arrayed along the sides. Two phrases appeared in grand Gothic script at each end: "Freedom of Worship" and "In God We Trust."5

By the mid-1970s, the transformation was so complete that novelist Walker Percy asserted that a southern conservative was just "Billy Graham on Sunday and Richard Nixon the rest of the week.

In 1954, Congress followed Eisenhower's lead, adding the phrase "under God" to the previously secular Pledge of Allegiance. A similar phrase, "In God We Trust," was added to a postage stamp for the first time in 1954 and then to paper money the next year; in 1956, it became the nation's first official motto.

On its final page, the noted painter Arnold Friberg depicted Moses, his arms outstretched, with the Liberty Bell ringing behind him. Across the top of the page ran the same passage from Leviticus used earlier by Spiritual Mobilization: "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land, unto All the Inhabitants Thereof.

At the hearings, the presiding senator kindly offered to have these documents inserted into the official transcript once they were found.

Thus, throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, Fifield and like-minded religious leaders advanced a new blend of conservative religion, economics, and politics that one observer aptly anointed "Christian libertarianism.

The executive secretary of the Citizens Congressional Committee was Charles W. Winegarner. A former advertising executive from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he now worked full-time promoting the cause.

In many ways, these three basic "fault lines" of division—the economic, racial, and political lines Obama outlined, plus a fourth line on gender and sexuality—had always been part of the national experience. For much of the twentieth century, however, strong centripetal forces pushed back against these traditional sources of discord and tension.

Together, these political and economic rights rested on a pedestal inscribed "Constitutional Government designed to Serve the People." And that, in turn, stood on a more substantial foundation: "Fundamental Belief in God."7

In an apparent nod to the previous year's "Freedom Under God" observance, which was set to be repeated in 1952, Truman selected the Fourth of July as the date for the first National Day of Prayer.

He insisted that the poor in other nations, like those in his own, needed no government assistance. "Their greatest need is not more money, food, or even medicine; it is Christ," he said. "Give them the Gospel of love and grace first and they will clean themselves up, educate themselves, and better their economic conditions."31

Even Hollywood got into the act, with director Cecil B. DeMille helping erect literally thousands of granite monuments to the Ten Commandments across the nation as part of a promotional campaign for his blockbuster film of the same name.

It has been said that there are two great Commandments—one is to love God, and the other to love your neighbor," Franklin D. Roosevelt noted soon after its creation. "The two particular tenets of this new organization say you shall love God and then forget your neighbor." Off the record, he joked that the name of the god they worshiped seemed to be "Property.

We have achieved the four freedoms: Freedom to ask; freedom to receive; freedom to be a leech; and freedom to loaf.

lead, adding the phrase "under God" to the previously secular Pledge of Allegiance. A similar phrase, "In God We Trust," was added to a postage stamp for the first time in 1954 and then to paper money the next year; in 1956, it became the nation's first official motto. During the Eisenhower

They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume are good people." Many Americans expressed outrage at these views, but in fact Trump was just repeating a message that had long been normalized on both sides of the political aisle.25