Where did that idea come from?

 The idea of a Christian nation strikes me as such a horrible idea that I have trouble grasping that it emerged from an organized effort.

But there it is: People of an earlier generation thought it was a good idea. They tried hard to sell it.

During the Cold War, when psychological warfare experts advised the president, scholars of religion helped shape religious propaganda broadcast behind the Iron Country and to the developing world. The Cold War was portrayed not just as a struggle between superpowers but as a war of ideals between a deeply religious culture and “godless communism.”

Andrew R. Polk, a historian at Middle Tennessee State University, contends that Franklin Roosevelt started a program to push the idea that America was better than its enemies — and that there was no question which side God was on. Harry Truman accelerated the program with an address to the nation in 1949. Professor Polk’s summary:

 

That program … enlisted the aid of advertising executives, military public relations experts, and the government’s own professional propagandists to sell the American public on a common religious heritage in support of the White House’s preferred policies. As a result, both the civil religion identified in the 1970s and 1980s and the Christian nationalism so prevalent today are, in truth, the byproducts and lasting legacies of a decades-long program of religious propaganda. 

 

I’ve been reading an essay written in the 1940s by Elton Trueblood, a scholar who promoted the idea of a Christian nation. He believed that everyone should want to live in a more ideal society than the world had yet seen. He believed that churches would be the catalyst for change toward a better society: less greedy and less materialistic, more just and more equitable.

I’ve been reading with a mixture of fascination and horror.

To me, the separation of church and state is fundamental. Chipping away at it is as wise as chipping away at the foundation of your house.

• Sources: Andrew R. Polk, “Religious Propaganda and the Making of An American Religion”; Liberty,November/December 2021. It’s here:

https://www.libertymagazine.org/article/religious-propaganda-and-the-making-of-an-american-religion

Polk’s book on the subject is Faith in Freedom: Propaganda, Presidential Politics, and the Making of an American Religion.

D. Elton Trueblood, “A Radical Experiment,” was The William Penn Lecture in 1947, delivered at Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia. The lecture was published as a pamphlet by the Young Friends Movement. It’s available here:

https://quaker.org/legacy/pamphlets/wpl1947a.html