Dear John,
This is a huge subject that deserves whole books, not a-10-page essay.
Foundations
-----------
For foundations on the influence of Christianity on American public
life, I would have taken two books:
Hutchinson, William, 2003 _Religious Pluralism in America_ -
Hutchinson tends sometimes to get into small anecdotes and stories to
make his point. This is a very short book, and very readable, if you
like (and understand) his small stories - as academic as the book is,
it is also very much like a lecture.
Williams, Peter W., 2002 _America's Religions_ - This is a very
comprehensive volume on the history of religion in America. Highly
recommended. If Hutchinson's stories are not for you, and you prefer a
more straight forward attitude, this book leans more towards a "clean"
historical approach.
Structure
---------
The easiest structure is a historical one: to start from the
beginning, and to go through the events as they develop. Another
option is to divide your essay by subjects. The first way is a bit
easier to write if you're pressured with a deadline: all you have to
do is sort each historical section after the other. In the other, you
have to "re-edit" and cross-reference from different periods, in
regards to the same subject.
A proposed structure:
1. Introduction
2. Pre-Revolutionary Religious Life in the Colonies (the religious
composition of the colonies)
3. Religion and the Framing of the Constitution (how did religion
affect the way the constitution was framed and in particular, the
First Amendment)
4. The treatment of non-Protestants in the 19th century (refer mostly
to Catholics, Native Americans and Jews).
5. Religious moral and political action: abolition, the Civil War,
emancipation of women and the prohibition
6. Sects and Cults in the second half 19th century and the first
decades of the 20th century (refer mostly to Mormonism and 7th Day
Adventists, but also to Christian Scientists, Jehovah Witnesses)
7. World War I: Political crisis and its outcomes (Niebuhr and the
"social Christianity" on one hand; Fundamentalism on the other)
8. World War II: Political crisis, the bomb and its outcomes: the
American Civil Religion (Bellah), based on a combination of
Protestant-Catholic-and-Jewish religious identity (Herberg); the first
Catholic President
9. "Cults" and the Counterculture of the Sixties, their meagre
influence on politics (but refer to Jim Jones and the Moonies'
political stands); Native American and African American religious
identity movements.
10. Conservative 1980s: The Christian Coalition and its influence on politics
11. Religious morals and political activism in the late 20th century:
abortions, gay rights, nuclear war, human rights, "cults".
12. Religious rhetoric after 9/11 ("crusade" rhetoric) and in the
current campaign.
13. Summary/conclusion
As you can see, you have here 13(!) sections of the work, and this is
after I left out some other, interesting, chapters on the religious
aspect of American politics. It is clear to me, that some of them
would not get more than a paragraph, perhaps less: after you'll write
it you'll have a better picture on what could be (with heavy heart)
left out. Remember, it is not your PhD dissertation: write only what's
important.
Now, I'll refer you to good online sources on each part (except for
the introduction and the summary).
Pre-Revolutionary Religious Life
--------------------------------
The myth portrays the colonists as mostly Puritans, who have fled
religious persecutions in England. However, many others - for example
in Virginia - were Anglicans, or immigrants from non-English countries
(the Low Countries, Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden). Naturally, the
first Americans belonged to none of the above (but to traditional
native religions), but they had no voice in early American politics,
but to set as an example to the "Noble/Wild Savage".
The important questions here - in the context of politics is:
- Who were the main figures, what denominations they belonged to and
how did the religious experience influence their politics
- How was slavery politically and economically justified (although you
could refer to that later), on religious premises
- The fact that the Puritans and other groups fled religious
persecution and were supposed therefore to be sensitive to the issue
(they weren?t, really)
"The American consciousness of British religious strife arose early in
colonial history when Puritan dissidents migrated to New England and
High Church Anglicans migrated to Virginia, during the English Civil
War.200 Many more fled to the American colonies in 1685 when James
Stuart II succeeded to the throne and took revenge on Protestant
anti-Stuart rebels.201 Images of the English Civil War and the
Glorious Revolution, along with images of denominational persecution
in Europe, strongly influenced pre-Revolutionary American thinking of
liberty and independence.202 American revolutionaries identified with
both religious rebellions of the British Revolution: The Glorious
Revolution and the English Civil War.203
[34] In the American colonies, daily life was infused with
denominational identity, which included negative images of rival
denominations that were bitterly resented for past slights and
oppressive crimes.204 In addition, the first Great Awakening
increased a sense of religious fervour in America by making religious
belief a personal choice.205 People were beckoned to convert and to
be born again.206 Revivalists created new religious identities, which
further heightened religious frictions.207 The Great Awakening
especially weakened the Church of England.208 The American Revolution
involved a zeal for liberty, an enthusiasm drawn from religious
revivalism traceable to the Great Awakening,209 which resurrected many
of the sects and religious enthusiasms of the Cromwellian English
Civil War in the American colonies.210 This, in turn, involved the
emergence of a variety of sects.211 By the time of the American
Revolution, religious fault-lines had been drawn, because the
revolution involved a civil war between Low Church Anglicans, with
support from some dissenting sects, and High Church Anglicans. The
three major American patriotic factions were the Congregationalists,
the Low Church Anglicans, and the Presbyterians.212 Patterns of
settlement in the American colonies reflected religious diversity213
as geographic mobility increased opportunities for sectarian
frictions.214 Religious cleavages occurred in revolutionary America
on a county by county and region by region basis.215 " (SOURCE: Daniel
Gordon, Into the Breyer Pass,
<http://www-camlaw.rutgers.edu/publications/law-religion/Gordon.doc>).
It could be also claimed - and here you could use Max Weber's famous
book on "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (See on
online version at the University of Virginia website:
<http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/WEBER/cover.html>), basically
claiming that the protestant spirit is the one that encouraged the
individualism and the capitalist ethos, and thus the "Americana" as it
is.
Read more:
Thomas E. Woods, Jr., The Colonial Origins of American Liberty,
<http://www.libertyhaven.com/noneoftheabove/religionandchristians/colonialorigins.shtml>
- a libertarian site.
Early America Forum "The Great wakening"
<http://earlyamerica.com/phorum/read.php?f=2&i=806&t=806> - a
discussion on the Great Awakening in Discussion Group style.
Chris Beneke, "From Many, One: The Religious Origins of American
Identity", <http://are.as.wvu.edu/beneke.htm> - how the revolution and
the national identity stemmed, in fact, from the Christian
(Protestant) religious identity.
America as a Religious Refuge, Library of Congress Web Site
<http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html> - this is the
first part of seven that would also assist in referring to the
constitution.
Religion and the Framing of the Constitution
-------------------------------------------
The constitution and before that, the Bill of Rights, are influenced
by vary of ideas that were popular at the time, those of enlightenment
in particular. However, the unique nature of American Christianity
made it apparent in the formation of the constitution (and especially
in the separation between Church and State, due to the unique nature
of the Puritan conditions: the First Amendment puts constraints on the
establishment, not the religion).
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison on Religious Freedom
<http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/pds/livingrev/religion/text2/text2link.htm>
- links to primary sources (such as Jefferson's letter on a "Wall of
Separation"); other link on the National Humanities Centre lead to
similar texts by Adams; to an exhibition on religion and the
constitution; and much more (See Resource Centre:
<http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/pds/livingrev/religion/religion.htm>).
David Barton, "James Madison and Religion in Public",
<http://www.wallbuilders.com/resources/search/detail.php?ResourceID=70>
"Spiritual Formation of the U. S. Constitution, Part I ? a sermon by
Jaco B. ten Hove ? ? Paint Branch UU Church, Adelphi, MD ? ? April 8,
2001" <http://www.pbuuc.org/ministerwritings/sermons/2001sermons/apr82001.html>
Religious Minorities in 19th century America
--------------------------------------------
The national identity was Protestant and so was the politics. Until
the late 19th century, both Catholic and Jewish immigrants received no
opportunities to integrate in the political system, and later (as
Hutchinson demonstrates in his book), opportunity was given to those
who imitated the Protestant moral and politics, and in fact
"assimilated" and "erased" their different identity.
SEPARATING CHURCH AND STATE
<http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/factover/ch8.htm> - an
official USIA information
Charles Haynes, "History of Religious Liberty in America"
<http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/rel_liberty/history/overview.aspx>
The American Jewish Experience through the Nineteenth Century:
Immigration and Acculturation,
<http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/judaism.htm>
Roman Catholics and Immigration in Nineteenth-Century America
<http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/nromcath.htm>
Religious moral and political action
------------------------------------
This is one of the main topics regarding the influence of Christianity
on politics and legislation in the United States. The issues mentioned
before (and the issues mentioned in the 20th century part) are all
issues that sparked heated debate, and whose politics was based on
religious arguments and Christian activism.
Slavery and abolition have both found religious justifications, and
the Christian abolitionary movement was a main factor in the events,
leading to the 14th Amendment and to the Civil War.
Slavery in the Bible
<http://www.religioustolerance.org/sla_bibl.htm>
Abolition and Religion in the Civil War
<http://www.civilwarhome.com/abolitionreligion.htm>
Encyclopaedia: Abolitionism
<http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Abolitionism>
Slavery and Religion in America: A Time Line 1440-1866
<http://www.ipl.org/div/timeline/>
Another issue that raised a heated debate at the time was the
participation of women in politics, leading finally to the 19th
Amendment. Here, again, religious morals and values influenced the
arguments and activities of both sides. It is not a coincidence that
many suffragists were also active in the religious cause against
slavery.
?The growing cultural secularism, emerging socialism, and the
perception that religion was within the sphere of the feminine changed
the country's religious landscape. The claim that women were by nature
religious and the new scholarly interest in the Scriptures both
justified the subordination of women and underscored their equality
with men. The scriptural justification for human freedom and equality
empowered women to live their religious beliefs in the public arena as
supporters of abolition, woman suffrage, women's ordination, and
changes in divorce laws." (SOURCE: "Reader's Companion to US Women's
History - - Religion"
<http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/women/html/wh_031700_religion.htm>).
Unitarian and Universalist Women
<http://womenshistory.about.com/library/lists/bl_uu_women_list.htm>
Our Own Twelve Anti-suffragist Reasons/ From the book Are Women
People? by Alice Duer Miller, 1915
<http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/bl_awp023_anti_suffrage_reasons.htm>
Prohibition, a third religious movement that also caused a third
constitutional change (the 18th Amendment). Prohibition and Temperance
were also led by Christian activists of the period, as a moral value.
Encyclopedia: Prohibition
<http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Prohibition>
History of Alcohol Prohibition*
<http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/nc/nc2a.htm>
The Politics of Prohibition: The 1920s
<http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture17.html>
Prohibition
<http://www.csupomona.edu/~skpuz/vhst202/projects/20s/20sreview.html#prohibition>
The 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment.
Sects and Cults in the second half 19th century
-----------------------------------------------
The same period, where Christians took a major place in major
political and legislative changes, was also a time of growth of new
religions - such as the Mormons and the Seventh Day Adventists. These
two groups, though persecuted in that period, managed with time to
gain legitimacy.
An interesting constitutional conflict - between the 14th and the
First Amendment, and the collective values - was the government?s
successful attempt to prevent polygamy among the Mormons. Anti Mormon
pressure - especially by Protestant groups - led to the 1862 Morrill
Anti Bigamy Act; and later, in Reynolds v. U.S. [98 U.S. 145 (1879)],
the Supreme Court upheld this law, and rejected Mormon claims of
unconstitionality. In this case, a minority religion's style of living
has been persecuted, despite the alleged protection that the First
Amendment gives religious minorities.
Polygamy and Politics
<http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/stu/dcann/polygamy.htm>
Sarah Barringer Gordon, The Mormon Question - Polygamy and
Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America , Introduction
(available online: <http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/gordon_mormon.html>).
Political crisis and its outcomes (1914 - 1917)
-----------------------------------------------
The First World War and other events of the era shaped two different
theological streams. On the one hand, the brothers Richard and
Reinhold Niebuhr adopted a religious and political stand, seeking
correction, or amendment, of the elements that caused the war in his
view. Niebuhr would later have much influence on Cold War strategists
and politicians, like George Keenan. On the other ? the growth of the
Fundamentalist movement in the United States, rejecting any dialogue
with the political and social ?deviance?. At the heart of this
political and social controversy, we can see phenomena like the Scopes
Trail, where a teacher who taught evolution was charged. If we could
see before Christian arguments for and against abolition or women?s
rights; here we see a division among political lines of what would be
later defined as ?left? and ?right?.
Joseph Kip Kosek, ?American Liberal Pacifists and the Memory of
Abolitionism, 1914-1933?, <
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center/pdfs/KOSEK.PDF>
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) <
http://homepages.which.net/~radical.faith/thought/niebuhr.htm>
Robin W. Lovin, ?On Prayer and Politics", <
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week719/essay.html>
The Scopes Trial: Fundamentalism vs. Modernism
< http://www.msad54.k12.me.us/MSAD54Pages/skow/CurrProjects/1920s/1920Gr12/strial.html>
Michael Lienesch, The Scopes Trail
< http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/ideasv62/lienesch.htm>
Infoplease, Fundamentalism.
< http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0819883.html>
Fundamentalism
< http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/itf1.html>
Post World War II Politics and Christianity
-----------------------------------------------
The nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Holocaust ? two
events of mass murder, one by deviant ideology and one by man-made
technology - shaped the trauma and the theology in the post war
period. This is true not only to the United States or to Christianity.
The war had also much more practical influences on the American
society, with the integration of minorities who participated in the
war, and now demanded equal rights. The civil rights pressure in the
South became more evident, led also by religious figures. In 1960, for
the first time, a Catholic was elected for President. These all
signified a change in American politics.
Several observers noted, that this meant that the collective identity
went through a change: from a protestant identity, to a
Protestant-Catholic-Jew(ish) identity, as Will Herberg?s book title
suggests.
Robert Bellah (1967) published his article on the American ?civil
religion?, an institutionalised, over-denominational, religion (See: <
http://hirr.hartsem.edu/bellah/articles_5.htm>).
"Cults" and the Counterculture
----------------------------------
The sixties with their counterculture and civil rights revolutions
brought more attention to alternative religious and political streams:
?cults?, fringe political opinions, and civil rights of minorities. Of
those religious experiments, several are worth mentioning for their
political aspect: ?Black? (African American) and ?Indian? identity
religions, such as the growth in the popularity of already existing
groups such as the Nation of Islam; and new churches, such as the one
established by Rev. Jim Jones (?People?s Temple?), and the Unification
Church, established by Rev. Moon (?The Moonies?). Both churches
adopted different world views on the solution to the world?s political
and social problems. Jones? ?church? adopted a mult-cultural,
multi-racial, socialist message. Moon supported (also financially),
right wing figures such as Nixon, and published an ad in Nixon?s
defence just before the later resigned. Both cults (as well as others)
felt persecuted by the government, and discriminated by it. Christian
(and other) pressure groups lobbied for investigations against the
groups ? Senators like Bob Dole obliged. In 1978, 900 of Jones
followers committed mass murder/suicide in Guyana, after Senatorial
investigation on their case ? a U.S. Senator, Leo Ryan, was also
murdered.
Conservatism of the 1980s
------------------------------
After the events of the 1960s and the 1970s, a counter wave, a
conservative one, took over. The Christian Coalition, a powerful
lobby, promoted issues dear to the heart of conservative Christians.
Christian Coalition
<http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/xicoal.html >
The Religious Right and the Christian Coalition
<http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/perspectives/thirty.html>
Religious morals and political activism
------------------------------------------
Several issues stood at the heart of controversies, involving
Christianity and politics. One of the most actual, gay-marriage (or
gay rights) embodies the challenges of the Christian political force
today: the personal identity rights, granted under the individualist
tradition, hurt what is perceived as a common moral good. Other topics
influencing politics and legislation have been abortion rights,
home-schooling, and human rights.
Again, the opinions are not united among Christians as to what the US
policy should be. While Christian Coalition members supported US
involvement with dictatorships in the Third World, Maryknoll <
http://www.maryknoll.org/> missionaries were killed, trying to protect
human rights in the same countries.
Abortion
< http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/abortion.htm>
Jay Johansen , Abortion: Mixing Religion and Politics <
http://www.pregnantpause.org/politics/mixing.htm>
Kenneth Cauthen, Religion and Politics: How to Relate Jesus to
Jefferson, < http://www.frontiernet.net/~kenc/presidentialreligionpolitics.htm>
Neuhaus Calls for Return to Religious Values in Politics
< http://www.law.virginia.edu/home2002/html/news/2003_fall/neuhaus.htm>
Religious rhetoric after 9/11
-------------------------------
After 9/11, and the current campaign, still demonstrates how
Christianity influences politics: politicians use Christian
terminology and rhetoric when discussing the War against Terrorism;
Presidential candidate should be better God fearing.
See for example:
?The President and the Marketing of American Civil Religion * Andrea
Allen, Texas at Austin * Since 911, President Bush, like other
presidents before him, has used religious rhetoric when publicly
addressing the American people. This paper examines Bush's use of
civil religion, as described by Robert Bellah, through the frame of
the seven devices of propaganda outlined in the 1939 book, The Fine
Art of Propaganda. Content analysis of major newspapers two months
before and after September 11 supports the increasing prominence of
the presidential religious rhetoric.? (SOURCE: Religion & Media
Interest Group 2002 Miami Beach Convention Paper Abstracts, <
http://www.aejmc.org/convention/2002convabs/rel02.html>).
American rhetoric 911 < http://www.americanrhetoric.com/rhetoricofterrorism.htm>
Shannon Jones, US attorney general invokes God in "war on terrorism",
15 May 2002, <http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/may2002/ashc-m15.shtml>
I hope this answered your question. If you focus on issues, abolition,
prohibition, women?s rights, evolution (Scope), abortions and civil
rights, could be your main issues. In any case, whether your
conclusion would be that the American politics is ?Christian? or not,
remember to pass critical thought on your conclusions, and to see how
one could contradict them. For example, you could claim that there is
a huge influence of Christians on U.S. politics, but then one might
ask ? ?which Christians? ? those in ?left? or in ?right?? You could
claim that the American institutional politics is ?Christian?, and
then again a counter argument could be Bellah?s ? not ?Christianity?
as such, but ?Civil Religion?.
Please contact me if you need any further clarification on my answer
before you rate it. |
