73 Ibid.
74 1 Stat. 246 (1792) Section 10.
75 Technically, the US had no official motto until the 1950s, but this served as the de facto if not the official motto.
76 See generally John Adams to Abigail Adams, August 14, 1776 [electronic edition], in Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Source of transcription: Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, 1963. The E pluribus unum motto survived on Simitiere’s sketch of the seal. See, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1:550.
77 Ibid.
78 Ibid.
Chapter 25 • “One nation under God”: The Divisive Motto
1 Edward R. Murrow, “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy,” See It Now, CBS, March 9, 1954, http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy.html.
2 Newdow v. US Congress, Elk Grove Unified School District, et. al., 292 F.3d 597 (9th Cir. 2002). The Supreme Court overturned this 2002 decision, not because the legal conclusion was incorrect, but because the father challenging the pledge did not have full custody of his daughter. See p. 281.
3 Adam Smith wrote that if the government does not aid religion, “Each teacher [of religion, i.e., a preacher] would no doubt have felt himself under the necessity of making the utmost exertion and of using every art both to preserve and to increase the number of his disciples….” See Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk. 5, ch. 1, pt. 3, art. 3 (1776) in Founders’ Constitution, vol. 5, Amendment I (Religion), doc. 31. Madison wrote, “It was the Universal opinion of the Century preceding the last, that Civil Govt. could not stand without the prop of a Religious establishment, & that the Xn. [Christian] religion itself, would perish if not supported by a legal provision for its Clergy.” See Madison to Robert Walsh, March 2, 1819, in Writings of James Madison, vol. 8, 431–32.
4 Kevin Kruse, One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America (New York: Basic Books, 2015), xiv.
5 Ibid. generally.
6 Ibid., 4.
7 Ibid., 12.
8 Ibid., 13.
9 Ibid., 7–8.
10 Ibid., 132.
11 Ibid., 132–3.
12 Ibid., 134.
13 Harry S. Truman: Radio Address as Part of the Program “Religion in American Life,” October 30, 1949. Online at APP.
14 Kruse, One Nation Under God, 138.
15 Ibid., 137–38.
16 A. Roy Eckardt, “The New Look in American Piety,” Christian Century 71 (November 17, 1954): 1396.
17 “God in the White House,” God in America, PBS, 2010, http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/god-in-the-white-house/.
18 J. Ronald Oakley, God’s Country: America in the Fifties (New York: Red Dembner, 1986), 320–21.
19 Or “Jesus Christ, we forgot the prayer!” depending on who is doing the retelling. Norman K. Risjord, America, a History of the United States: Since 1865 (New York: Prentice Hall, 1988), 361; Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House (New York: Hachette, 2007), 43.
20 Kruse, One Nation Under God, xiii, 88–92.
21 Patrick Allitt, Religion in America since 1945, 31.
22 Oakley, God’s Country, 325, citing a 1951 Gallup poll.
23 Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, Religious Knowledge Survey 2010, 22 (“Slightly less than half of those polled [45 percent] can name all four Gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke and John]. An additional 6 percent correctly name between one and three of the Gospels”), https://perma.cc/264H-SPV7.
24 Rep. Wingate Lucas read Graham’s sermon into the Congressional Record on February 18, 1952. Congressional Record (House), vol. 98, pt. 8, January 8, 1952 to July 7, 1952, A910.
25 Kruse, One Nation Under God, 54–56.
26 66 stat 64; 36 USC Sect 169h; Public Law 82-324.
27 Richard A. Harris and Daniel J. Tichenor, ed., A History of the U.S. Political System: Ideas, Interests, and Institutions: Ideas, Interests, and Institutions, vol. 1 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO 2009), 129.
28 Kruse, One Nation Under God, 75–81.
29 Jonathan P. Herzog, The Spiritual-Industrial Complex: America’s Religious Battle Against Communism in the Early Cold War (Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, 2011), 104.
30 Oakley, God’s Country, 320–21; Kruse, One Nation Under God, 95; Leo Pfeffer, Church, State, and Freedom, rev. ed. (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2018), 242.
31 “Stamp Dedicated by the President,” New York Times, April 9, 1954.
32 H. Con. Res. 60, Doc. No. 234, 84th Congress, 1st Sess.
33 Pub. L. No. 396, Ch. 297, 68 Stat. 249 (1954).
34 Pub. L.84−140, 69 Stat. 290, H.R. 619, enacted July 11, 1955.
35 History of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 1862–1962 (Washington, DC: Treasury Dept., 1962), 177.
36 Pub.L.84−851, 70 Stat. 732, H.J.Res. 396, enacted July 30, 1956.
37 Kruse, One Nation Under God, 140–48.
38 Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Obama, 705 F. Supp. 2d 1039 (W.D. Wis. 2010), vacated and remanded, 641 F.3d 803 (7th Cir. 2011).
39 Ibid.
40 Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, 542 U.S. 1, 18 (2004).
41 Ibid. at 26–27, (Rehnquist, CJ concurring).
42 Ibid. at 28, 29.
43 Andrew L Seidel, “The Christian Hypocrisy of ‘In God We Trust,” Freethought Now!, April 13, 2016, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/freethoughtnow/the-christian-hypocrisy-of-in-god-we-trust/.
44 See H. R. Rep. No. 83-1693, at 3 (1954).
45 Amy Crawford, “How the Pledge of Allegiance Went from PR Gimmick to Patriotic Vow,” Smithsonian, September 2015, https://bit.ly/2eCmur0.
46 Ibid.
47 Kruse, One Nation Under God, 102–3.
48 Robert Griffith, The Politics of Fear (Amherst, MA: Univ. of Massachusetts. Press, 1987).
49 Oakley, God’s Country, 2.
50 Fred J. Cook, The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy (New York: Random House, 1971), 152–56.
51 William Shirer, Midcentury Journey: The Western World Through Its Years of Conflict (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1952), 275.
52 Mike Miller, “50 Years Ago, Fear Ruled Fourth: Reporter’s Petition Measured Effect of McCarthy,” Capital Times (Madison, WI), July 4, 2001; Dave Zweifel, “Plain Talk: Remembering Joe McCarthy, We Need to Fight Smears and Fears Anew,” Capital Times, June 29, 2011.
53 Miller, “50 Years Ago.”
54 Oakley, God’s Country, 74.
55 Earl Warren, “Blessings of Liberty,” Washington Univ. Law. Quarterly 105, iss. 2 (1955), http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol1955/iss2/1. Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered this address February 19, 1955, as the keynote speaker at the opening assembly of WU’s Second Century Convocation.
56 Allitt, Religion in America since 1945, 23.
57 Joseph McCarthy, Address to the Sons of the American Revolution, Claridge Hotel, Atlantic City, NJ, May 15, 1950, in Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 2nd Sess., A3786-3789 at 3787, https://bit.ly/2TzkpAM. See also McCarthy’s May 25, 1950, remarks to the Catholic Press Assoc. in Rochester, NY, quoted in Martin E. Marty, Modern American Religion: Under, Indivisible, 1941–1960, vol. 3 (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1996), 357–38 (“You have been engaged in what may well be the final Armageddon foretold in the Bible—that struggle between light and darkness, between good and evil, between life and death, if you please.”)
58 Allitt, Religion in America since 1945, 25; Kruse, One Nation Under God, 148–49.
59 Ibid.
60 Peter Lewis, The Fifties (New York: J. B. Lippencott, 1978), 73–74.
61 Allitt, Religion in America since 1945, 24.
62 Oakley, God’s Country, 324, quoting Harry C. Meserve, “The New Piety,” Atlantic Monthly 195, June 1955, 35.
63 Ibid., 184, citing Samuel Stouffer, Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties: A Cross-section of the Nation Speaks Its Mind (New Brunswick, NJ: Transa
ction, 1955), 161, 176, used to refine and expand quotations in this cite.
64 Ibid., 26.
65 Ibid., 26.
66 Ibid., 72.
67 Dan Lewerenz, “50 Years Ago, Sermon Spurred Putting ‘Under God’ in Pledge,” Associated Press, February 6, 2004.
68 Rev. George M. Docherty, sermon at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, February 7, 1954, 9, http://www.nyapc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Under_God_Sermon.pdf.
69 H.R. Rep. No. 83-1693, at 1–2 (1954), repr. in 1954 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2339, 2340.
70 Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President upon Signing Bill to Include the Words “Under God” in the Pledge to the Flag, June 14, 1954. Online at APP.
71 Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306 (1952).
72 Ibid., 323 (1952) (Jackson, J. dissenting).
73 Ibid., 313 (1952).
74 William Cohen, “Commentary: Douglas as Civil Libertarian,” in He Shall Not Pass This Way Again: The Legacy of Justice William O. Douglas, ed. Stephen L. Wasby (Pittsburgh, PA: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1990), 121–28 at 123. (Cohen also points out that Douglas never explained his doctrinal and verbal inconsistencies between this opinion and his later opinions on state-church separation and calling the opinion “puzzling,” at 124.) See also Nadine Strossen, “The Religion Clause Writings of Justice William O. Douglas,” in ibid., 91–108 at 92, 100–101 (noting that this was the only Douglas opinion rejecting an Establishment Clause challenge, calling it anomalous).
75 See, e.g., Bruce Murphy, Wild Bill: The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas (New York: Random House, 2003), 310–11.
76 McGowan, 366 U.S. 42 (Douglas, J., dissenting). Douglas continued, “second, that no one shall be interfered with by government for practicing the religion of his choice; third, that the State may not require anyone to practice a religion or even any religion; and fourth, that the State cannot compel one so to conduct himself as not to offend the religious scruples of another. The idea, as I understand it, was to limit the power of government to act in religious matters, not to limit the freedom of religious men to act religiously nor to restrict the freedom of atheists or agnostics.”
77 Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178 (1957).
78 John F. Kennedy, speech, Greater Houston Ministerial Association, Rice Hotel, Houston, TX, September 12, 1960. https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/historic-speeches/address-to-the-greater-houston-ministerial-association.
79 Torcaso v. Watkins (1961); Engel v. Vitale (1962); Abington v. Schempp (1963); Epperson v. Arkansas (1968).
80 “Atheism Doubles Among Generation Z,” Barna Group, January 24, 2018, https://www.barna.com/research/atheism-doubles-among-generation-z/.
81 Ibid.
Chapter 26 • “God bless America”: The Diversionary Motto
1 George Carlin, It’s Bad for Ya, HBO special, March 1, 2008.
2 Edward Abbey, Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast (Minneapolis: Milkweed, 2006), 71.
3 Kruse, One Nation Under God, 256; Edward Fiske, “‘Underground’ Church Started Right in Nation’s Capital,” Day newspaper (New London, CT) September 6, 1969, 6.
4 President Richard Nixon’s televised address to the nation on the Watergate investigation, April 30, 1973, http://watergate.info/1973/04/30/nixons-first-watergate-speech.html.
5 David Domke and Kevin Coe, The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America (Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, 2008), 61–62. See also Domke and Coe, “Happy 35th, ‘God Bless America,’” Time, April 29, 2008.
6 Nixon, Remarks at the Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, Tennessee, March 16, 1974. Online at APP.
7 Andrew L. Seidel, “Trump Pushes Bible Classes in Public Schools, Backs Project Blitz,” Freethought Now!, January 28, 2019, https://www.patheos.com/blogs/freethoughtnow/trump-pushes-bible-classes/.
8 Ronald Reagan: Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Detroit, July 17, 1980. Online at APP.
9 Domke and Coe, “Happy 35th, ‘God Bless America.’”
10 Founders’ Constitution online, vol. 5, Amendment 1 (Religion), doc. 66; Madison, Writings of James Madison, FO-NA; Madison to Livingston, July 10, 1822, FO-NA.
11 Donald Trump, speech at Liberty Univ., Lynchburg, VA, January 18, 2016.
12 Eugene Scott, “A Revealing Aside in the Trump Tape Sheds Light on the Limits of His Outreach to Black Voters,” Washington Post, July 25, 2018, https://wapo.st/2mEUaWy. The full exchange was as follows:
TRUMP: And, your guy is a good guy. He’s a good — COHEN: Who, Pastor Scott? TRUMP: Can’t believe this. No, Pastor Scott. What’s, what’s happening — COHEN: No — TRUMP: Can we use him anymore? COHEN: Oh, yeah, a hundred — no, you’re talking about Mark Burns. He’s, we’ve told him to [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. TRUMP: I don’t need that — Mark Burns, are we using him? COHEN: No, no.
13 Madison, “Memorial and Remonstrance,” ¶ 5.
14 The West Wing. “In God We Trust,” Season 6, Ep. 20. Dir. by Christopher Misiano. Written by Lawrence O’Donnell Jr. NBC, March 23, 2005.
15 37 percent of Americans could not name a right protected by the First Amendment in 2017. See 2017 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, “Americans Are Poorly Informed About Basic Constitutional Provisions,” September 12, 2017, https://perma.cc/SRN7-BHRC.
Conclusion • Take alarm, this is the first experiment on our liberties
1 Madison, “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” ¶ 3.
2 As an atheist attending my first Catholic wedding, I noticed early on that the focus was not on the couple and began counting. I repeated the experiment at other Catholic weddings I attended. I counted the number of times the wedding officiant refers to the couple or individuals in the couple, and the number of mentions of a god or the church. The final tally at the wedding referred to above was 60 to 238.
3 See, e.g., Shane Idleman, “America—Then vs. Now. It’s Almost Unbelievable,” ChrismaNews.com, April 6, 2015 (“Newsweek magazine, on December 27, 1982, in an article titled, ‘How the Bible Made America,’ made this revealing statement: ‘Historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution, is our Founding document’”); Gary DeMar, “The History Con May be Over,” Americanvision.org, June 1, 2010 (“A 1982 article in Newsweek Magazine stated, ‘[F]or centuries [the Bible] has exerted an unrivaled influence on American culture, politics and social life. Now historians are discovering that the Bible perhaps even more than the Constitution, is our founding document’”); Barton, Original Intent, 226; Mark A. Beliles and Stephen K. McDowell, America’s Providential History (Charlottesville, VA: Providence Foun., 1989), 186.
4 Kenneth L. Woodward and David Gates, “How the Bible Made America,” Newsweek, December 27, 1982, 44–51.
5 Tim Minchin put it nicely in Storm, his “epic beat poem.” See an animated version at https://bit.ly/2TyIqbd.
6 See, e.g., Jerry Coyne, Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (New York: Viking, 2015); John William Draper, History of Conflict between Religion and Science (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1875); Andrew Dickson White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (New York: D. Appleton & Co, 1901).
7 Green, Women Without Superstition, 469.
8 Such as Congress printing bibles (a misrepresentation), language in the Northwest Ordinance (passed in 1787 by the Confederation Congress while the leading founding fathers were at the Constitutional Convention), and irrelevant Supreme Court dicta issued in cases involving an alien labor law. See, e.g., Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. 457, 471 (1892).
9 Franklin to Richard Price, October 9, 1780, in Works of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 8, “Letters and Misc. Writings, 1779–1781,” 311.
10 Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, query 17.
11 Madison, “Memorial and Remonstrance,” ¶ 3.
12 Ibid.
Image Credits
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University of Notre Dame/ Reproduced from the original held by the Department of Special Collections of the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame:273
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The Founding Myth Page 44
