The 2016 annual meeting for the Organization of American Historians (OAH) will feature a session focusing upon the provocative book One Nation Under God by Princeton history professor Keven M. Kruse. In One Nation Under God, Kruse argues that the idea of the United States as a Christian nation does not find its origins with the founding of the United States or the writing of the Constitution. Rather, the notion of America as specifically consecrated by God to be a beacon for liberty was the work of corporate and religious figures opposed to New Deal statism and interference with free enterprise. The political conflict found in this concept of Christian libertarianism was modified by President Dwight Eisenhower who advocated a more civic religion of “one nation under God” to which both liberals and conservatives might subscribe. Kruse concludes that with the polarization of America in the 1960s over such issues such as school prayer and the war in Vietnam, politicians such as Richard Nixon abandoned the more inclusive civic religion of the Eisenhower era. Kruse writes that by the 1970s “the rhetoric of ‘one nation under […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
I have not read Kruse’s book, but I do know that “The Jefferson Bible”, actually called “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” was published by the Government Printing Office in 1904 and 9,000 copies were distributed to the two chambers of Congress and in the following years, elected senators each received a copy of said book on the day they sworn into office; a tradition that did not end until they ran out in the 1950’s. This fact may be an important reason for the assumption that The U.S.A. is a Christian government. If only the Congress had those morals now, we would be in a better place, and there would be more ethics in politics.