Book Report

I've already mentioned some interesting books this year in these posts. Here is another one that I just finished reading. Last fall sometime, I heard the author of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America interviewed by Terry Gross on her NPR program Fresh Air.  You can find the NPR story about that interview by clicking here. I highly recommend reading and/or listening to the interview, and I also highly recommend the book.

The author, Kevin M. Kruse, a history professor at Princeton, presents what I believe to be an unbiased review of historical events beginning in the 1930s that moved us toward a collective belief that we are somehow a Christian nation. How many of you remember having to relearn the pledge of allegiance when it was modified in the 1950s to include the phrase "one nation under God?" I do! How many of you know that our coins and currency have only included the phrase "In God we trust" since 1956, when the phrase became our national motto? Kruse explains how corporate america and the evangelical right, because of its rejection of Roosevelt's New Deal, made a concerted effort to move the country in the direction of assumption of our being a Christian nation established by our founding fathers. There is truly very little evidence that this is what our founding fathers intended in any explicit way, though they of course respected our religious traditions and meant to protect them through the eventual addition of the first amendment to our constitution. In addition, the book covers a number of significant Supreme Court cases and decisions dealing with prayer in schools and other  relevant matters.

For me, the book was interesting in part because I recall so much of this time period and these issues and involved personalities. More important, I feel that the book gave me strong insight into why we now have such an obstructionist mode of operation between our political parties, within Congress, and between the Executive and Legislative branches. Also, the book reinforces my strong support for separation of church and state and my belief that both institutions are best served by this separation. I dislike what is happening with theistic states, and I do not believe that we should consider ourselves a Christian nation (which would make us a theistic state). At the same time, I very much respect the ways in which our individual beliefs can, should, and often do lead us to appropriate and compassionate behavior. Whether you agree with me or not, I think you will find the book of considerable interest.