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Meacham has, unfortunately, throughout the book, downplayed the threat of a theocracy in the United States. He minimizes the fact that many people in the United States seek to weaponize Christianity for political gain at the expense of the very ideals upon which the United States was founded. Despite this fact, it is still an interesting book.
Useful insight into the historical marriage of Christianity and politics as well as a good look at what the author calls a public religion.
The issue of religion, both public and private, has had a place in the United States ever since our founding. Jon Meacham brings a historian's eye to this interesting and complex issue. The men who founded the United States came from diverse backgrounds, yet they had many things in common. Meacham shows that the ethics and morality of the Bible have informed and defined the history of the United States from the beginning.
Religion informs the way that we discuss issues and forms our public lives as well as our private lives. Jefferson used religious imagery when writing the Declaration of Independence. Abolitionists used the gospel to fight slavery. The issue was not couched in economic terms, but in the terms of a system that was evil in its nature. Franklin Roosevelt believed that the New Deal was a Christian imperative to help the poor. Martin Luther King, Jr. couched the Civil Rights movement not as a political movement, but as a spiritual movement.
This is an issue that still divides our nation today. This book will help to set the stage for understanding the complex ways that religion in general and the Christian religion in particular still defines how we talk about political and social issues. Both liberals and conservatives will take issue with different points of this book, but maybe that's a good thing. Whether or not you agree with every point you will find a lot to think about with this book.
Religion informs the way that we discuss issues and forms our public lives as well as our private lives. Jefferson used religious imagery when writing the Declaration of Independence. Abolitionists used the gospel to fight slavery. The issue was not couched in economic terms, but in the terms of a system that was evil in its nature. Franklin Roosevelt believed that the New Deal was a Christian imperative to help the poor. Martin Luther King, Jr. couched the Civil Rights movement not as a political movement, but as a spiritual movement.
This is an issue that still divides our nation today. This book will help to set the stage for understanding the complex ways that religion in general and the Christian religion in particular still defines how we talk about political and social issues. Both liberals and conservatives will take issue with different points of this book, but maybe that's a good thing. Whether or not you agree with every point you will find a lot to think about with this book.
I have enjoyed reading about the faith of our founding fathers and thought it would be a good read for many people who aren't sure what separation of church and state means. And that little over-used phrase (separation of church and state) was in a letter written by Jefferson, but is nowhere to be found in the constitution or other official papers. I found that piece of information quite interesting. It could have been shorter, but it was still good.
American Gospel frames the role of religion in U.S. government through colonial to modern America as a fragile but enduring embrace of a “public religion” against tides of theocracy. Mecham’s narrative style blends a command of source material with poignant profiles. His willingness to confront America’s errors and sins lends his essay and historical discussion tremendous credibility. His tone is earnest, pluralist and patriotic. The result is an authoritative discussion about the ecumenical role of religion in American government.
In Mecham’s essay, he expands on the common refrain that America was founded on freedom of religion (which is fundamental to free thought) not freedom from religion. It’s obvious that Mecham believes the Madison-Jefferson view that religion must be separate from government is fundamental in a strict constitutional sense and is also a pragmatic form of responsible democratic government.
I read this before a presentation on the First Amendment and think it is one of the most readable and reliable works on the constitutional and historical role of religion. Nothing about Mecham’s summation of colonial schisms and the Framer’s intent is new but it is well written. What Mecham does with American Gospel that is special is he does more than define the establishment clause—American Gospel illustrates how the original meaning of the constitution has been consistently preserved during centuries of crisis. This is history at its best, where it doesn’t just assume that centuries of thinking and debate is relevant, he shows why it is essential to preserving American democracy from any form of religious nationalism.
Mecham also makes the compelling point that the basis of American government and its revolutionary ethos that proclaimed we are all endowed with sacred rights provides a moral mandate to support human rights anywhere. Yet, we’ve consistently failed from the beginning from slavery to xenophobia (and often cloaking these acts in religious authority).
Throughout the essay, Mecham highlights essential counters of the national identity like our founding myth that America is blessed with Providence, the Barbary Treaty under Jefferson (which proclaimed US government as secular) and the drafts and attempted revision to the First Amendment.
Mecham often focuses on presidential moments where the tides of theocracy were repulsed and leaders reminded the nation of our founding mythology to summon faith. Several presidents get special attention like Lincoln whose unorthodox Christianity became almost revelatory during the Civil War as he did things like issue the Emancipation Proclamation to summon divine favor. Other presidents make cameos to do the right thing from Jackson refusing to join a church or Teddy Roosevelt defending Taft for being a Unitarian.
Through these profiles (and shorter profiles of religious movements—I especially enjoyed the passage about Baptists believing in a firm wall between church and state historically) the inflection points in American religious movements are charted as well as how America survived these epochs.
With careful attention to the nations flaws, Mecham rebuts theocratic movements (and the people who cite them today) and acknowledges the ways religion has been used for terror and indifference.Ultimately Mecham makes a compelling case that the Framer’s intent to create a pluralistic society by allowing an ecumenical embrace of religion in government is originalist, textualist, and realistically the best form of government.
This is worth reading for anyone who enjoys history, government, or litigates/teaches constitutional issues. Our conservative justices should definitely read it and at least attempt to rebut Mecham’s analysis before they issue anymore opinions on religious issues.
My bias is that, like Mecham, I believe the Framer’s goal to fix essential rights in the eternal through the Constitution deserves some deference and religion is one of the few areas where they succeeded. I also think if more litigation framed issues like the First Amendment as sensitively and authoritatively as Mecham has in American Gospel, that originalism can serve progressive policy goals. The Framers, like most revered historical figures, have typically (although selectively) advanced liberal ideas.
In Mecham’s essay, he expands on the common refrain that America was founded on freedom of religion (which is fundamental to free thought) not freedom from religion. It’s obvious that Mecham believes the Madison-Jefferson view that religion must be separate from government is fundamental in a strict constitutional sense and is also a pragmatic form of responsible democratic government.
I read this before a presentation on the First Amendment and think it is one of the most readable and reliable works on the constitutional and historical role of religion. Nothing about Mecham’s summation of colonial schisms and the Framer’s intent is new but it is well written. What Mecham does with American Gospel that is special is he does more than define the establishment clause—American Gospel illustrates how the original meaning of the constitution has been consistently preserved during centuries of crisis. This is history at its best, where it doesn’t just assume that centuries of thinking and debate is relevant, he shows why it is essential to preserving American democracy from any form of religious nationalism.
Mecham also makes the compelling point that the basis of American government and its revolutionary ethos that proclaimed we are all endowed with sacred rights provides a moral mandate to support human rights anywhere. Yet, we’ve consistently failed from the beginning from slavery to xenophobia (and often cloaking these acts in religious authority).
Throughout the essay, Mecham highlights essential counters of the national identity like our founding myth that America is blessed with Providence, the Barbary Treaty under Jefferson (which proclaimed US government as secular) and the drafts and attempted revision to the First Amendment.
Mecham often focuses on presidential moments where the tides of theocracy were repulsed and leaders reminded the nation of our founding mythology to summon faith. Several presidents get special attention like Lincoln whose unorthodox Christianity became almost revelatory during the Civil War as he did things like issue the Emancipation Proclamation to summon divine favor. Other presidents make cameos to do the right thing from Jackson refusing to join a church or Teddy Roosevelt defending Taft for being a Unitarian.
Through these profiles (and shorter profiles of religious movements—I especially enjoyed the passage about Baptists believing in a firm wall between church and state historically) the inflection points in American religious movements are charted as well as how America survived these epochs.
With careful attention to the nations flaws, Mecham rebuts theocratic movements (and the people who cite them today) and acknowledges the ways religion has been used for terror and indifference.Ultimately Mecham makes a compelling case that the Framer’s intent to create a pluralistic society by allowing an ecumenical embrace of religion in government is originalist, textualist, and realistically the best form of government.
This is worth reading for anyone who enjoys history, government, or litigates/teaches constitutional issues. Our conservative justices should definitely read it and at least attempt to rebut Mecham’s analysis before they issue anymore opinions on religious issues.
My bias is that, like Mecham, I believe the Framer’s goal to fix essential rights in the eternal through the Constitution deserves some deference and religion is one of the few areas where they succeeded. I also think if more litigation framed issues like the First Amendment as sensitively and authoritatively as Mecham has in American Gospel, that originalism can serve progressive policy goals. The Framers, like most revered historical figures, have typically (although selectively) advanced liberal ideas.
Reminded me of a high school history book. A good overview of religion and how it has been shaped and shaped the US, but didn't really go in depth.
Jon Meacham appears to take a genuinely moderate approach to his examination of the role of religion in American history. He argues that America was not founded as a Christian nation, but he also declines to classify it as a purely secular nation where religion must be expunged from the public sphere. In clear, concise language, he relates the role religion played in America from the founding of Jamestown to Ronald Reagan, although he is rather sporadic in his approach, often flying through great expanses of history, including the Great Awakening (a rather strange omission for a book on religion and America). He argues that America has both "public" and "private" religion, the private religion being specific (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc.), and the public religion being a type of general deism. He concedes that, on the whole, religion has been a positive influence on America.
While I appreciate that he approaches the role of religion with a moderate tone, I'm not sure I find his overall characterization of America or its founding fathers as religiously moderate convincing. Firstly, the founding fathers well may have been moderate for their own day, but they would hardly be considered so in ours. What if a modern President, as Abraham Lincoln once did, suggested that a present war was God's punishment for the national sins committed by Americans? (Indeed, Meacham himself, in the pages of American Gospel, reacts in horror at Jerry Falwell's extremism for suggesting our national sufferings in 9/11 were the consequence of our national sins.) What if a modern president where to make the kind of religious proclamations, today, that past presidents once made without concern that the public would scream, "Separation of church and state"? George Bush nearly sent people into fits merely by using words like "good" and "evil," but "moderate" politicians such as Ben Franklin routinely said things such as "We had daily prayer in this room of the divine power. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were answered." Meacham is right that the founding fathers were not sectarian zealots in their own time; what he fails to consider is the likelihood that they would be considered so in ours.
Secondly, Meacham's middle of the road approach fails to grasp how important the extremes of religious zeal were in bringing about major changes in United States history: abolition, the temperance movement, women's rights, and the Civil Rights movement—all major American political movements that were not fueled by moderate mainline attitudes, but by evangelical piety. Real historical change rarely results from moderation. Meacham makes some passing attempt to distinguish the use of the churches for the civil rights cause and the use of churches by conservative Christians to affect political change, but the distinction is quite spurious. Meacham's religious "extreme" appears to be those who use religion to further causes of which he doesn't personally approve; his religious "moderates" are those who use religion to further causes of which he does happen to approve. At any rate, the fact remains that, in U.S. history, religion has long mingled with politics, and it is not moderate and general religion, but deeply felt and specific religion, that has most often affected true change.
None of this is to suggest that America is a nation where Christians routinely strive to "force" their belief on others. Not even the most fundamentalist of American Christian denominations today advocates anything like a theocracy or the imprisonment of dissenters or the execution of homosexuals or religious tests for office. That is to say, one can be evangelical, zealous, or "extreme" in one's religion and still believe in religious tolerance and liberty; in fact, it is the most evangelical sects of Christians that have historically, traditionally supported the separation of church and state and not the presumably moderate "mainline" Christian denominations, which have tended, rather, to be established state churches.
America may not be a "Christian nation," but it is a nation OF Christians, many of whom are quite zealous compared to Christians in the rest of the western developed world. America boasts a more vibrant, more seriously held Christianity than any other western nation, with evangelicals numbering around 25% of the population. In America, church attendance greatly outstrips attendance in European countries with established churches. What America offers is not "moderation" in religion at all, but liberty, which is what makes real zeal possible. Established religion erodes zeal and slowly kills Christianity. But liberty gives birth to "extreme" religion, life-changing religion, nation-changing religion. What makes America unique is not that we are full of religious moderates or even that our founding fathers were religious moderates, but that most of our religious "extremists," unlike the religious extremists of most other times and cultures, have traditionally recognize that liberty is a friend of true religion.
So, while I appreciate that Meacham does not falsify history to fit it into a mythological Christian-nation mold as do too many fundamentalists, and while I appreciate that he does not wish to eradicate all vestiges of faith from the public sphere as do too many secularists, I ultimately find his thesis of moderations somewhat bland and lacking in historical insight. I had great hopes for the book from its opening pages, but it soon began to fall flat.
While I appreciate that he approaches the role of religion with a moderate tone, I'm not sure I find his overall characterization of America or its founding fathers as religiously moderate convincing. Firstly, the founding fathers well may have been moderate for their own day, but they would hardly be considered so in ours. What if a modern President, as Abraham Lincoln once did, suggested that a present war was God's punishment for the national sins committed by Americans? (Indeed, Meacham himself, in the pages of American Gospel, reacts in horror at Jerry Falwell's extremism for suggesting our national sufferings in 9/11 were the consequence of our national sins.) What if a modern president where to make the kind of religious proclamations, today, that past presidents once made without concern that the public would scream, "Separation of church and state"? George Bush nearly sent people into fits merely by using words like "good" and "evil," but "moderate" politicians such as Ben Franklin routinely said things such as "We had daily prayer in this room of the divine power. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were answered." Meacham is right that the founding fathers were not sectarian zealots in their own time; what he fails to consider is the likelihood that they would be considered so in ours.
Secondly, Meacham's middle of the road approach fails to grasp how important the extremes of religious zeal were in bringing about major changes in United States history: abolition, the temperance movement, women's rights, and the Civil Rights movement—all major American political movements that were not fueled by moderate mainline attitudes, but by evangelical piety. Real historical change rarely results from moderation. Meacham makes some passing attempt to distinguish the use of the churches for the civil rights cause and the use of churches by conservative Christians to affect political change, but the distinction is quite spurious. Meacham's religious "extreme" appears to be those who use religion to further causes of which he doesn't personally approve; his religious "moderates" are those who use religion to further causes of which he does happen to approve. At any rate, the fact remains that, in U.S. history, religion has long mingled with politics, and it is not moderate and general religion, but deeply felt and specific religion, that has most often affected true change.
None of this is to suggest that America is a nation where Christians routinely strive to "force" their belief on others. Not even the most fundamentalist of American Christian denominations today advocates anything like a theocracy or the imprisonment of dissenters or the execution of homosexuals or religious tests for office. That is to say, one can be evangelical, zealous, or "extreme" in one's religion and still believe in religious tolerance and liberty; in fact, it is the most evangelical sects of Christians that have historically, traditionally supported the separation of church and state and not the presumably moderate "mainline" Christian denominations, which have tended, rather, to be established state churches.
America may not be a "Christian nation," but it is a nation OF Christians, many of whom are quite zealous compared to Christians in the rest of the western developed world. America boasts a more vibrant, more seriously held Christianity than any other western nation, with evangelicals numbering around 25% of the population. In America, church attendance greatly outstrips attendance in European countries with established churches. What America offers is not "moderation" in religion at all, but liberty, which is what makes real zeal possible. Established religion erodes zeal and slowly kills Christianity. But liberty gives birth to "extreme" religion, life-changing religion, nation-changing religion. What makes America unique is not that we are full of religious moderates or even that our founding fathers were religious moderates, but that most of our religious "extremists," unlike the religious extremists of most other times and cultures, have traditionally recognize that liberty is a friend of true religion.
So, while I appreciate that Meacham does not falsify history to fit it into a mythological Christian-nation mold as do too many fundamentalists, and while I appreciate that he does not wish to eradicate all vestiges of faith from the public sphere as do too many secularists, I ultimately find his thesis of moderations somewhat bland and lacking in historical insight. I had great hopes for the book from its opening pages, but it soon began to fall flat.
challenging
informative
mysterious
fast-paced