Under God: Religion and American Politics

Gary is a fine scholar of Christian history. His writing is clear and lucid, and a scholar's delight.

Gary Hart's journey was a sort of Kierkegaardian parable. Being a Nazarene, for Hart, was life-imprisoning. A nearly twenty year old analysis of a Presidential election, 1988, from a religious perspective, remains useful to us. Religious beliefs of the participants and their ability to engage people on such a basis still determine election results. Careful observation and interesting facts abound in this survey of the fate of Gary Hart, Pat Robertson, George H.W. Bush, Danny Quayle, Michael Dukakis, Jesse Jackson, Mario Cuomo, and Bruce Babbitt. Dukakis felt uncomfortable with moral appeals.

It might appear that reading a book now about the presidential campaign of 1998 would be a wast of time, but in this case appearance would be very much wrong. Gary Wills has written a serious examination of religion in the lives of major contemporary and historical figures (e.g. Jessie Jackson and Thomas Jefferson.) I would love to read an update on the current presidential contenders. I found his thoughts on the Scopes "monkey trial" fascinating. I also found his work on James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and other historical people to be well worth reading. Mr. Wills concludes that religion has an undeniable effect on the actions of political leaders and after reading this I believe you will concur.

Award winning historian Gary Wills wrote this book after coming to the conclusion that the mass media and the elite that determines its content are hopelessly out to sea when it comes to understanding the role that Christianity has played and continues to play in American history and politics. Wills, a theologically liberal Roman Catholic, effectively demolishes the popular folklore that has grown up around the Scopes trial and Inherit the Wind. While never weakening his own support for evolutionary theory, Wills scrapes the facade of noble humanism that has been applied to Clarence Darrow, whose own interest in evolution had more to due with facist ideas about race than science, and the tarnish of buffoonery that has been applied to William Jennings Bryant, whose defense of intentional creation had more to due with a respect for human dignity and progressive social welfare than with blind allegiance to superstition.

I wish I had discovered this book sooner! It's well-written and packed with fascinating information and analysis. I was particularly taken by chapter 33, "Madison and the Honor of God". Mr. Wills is dead-on accurate in his assessment about Madison being the single most effective force in disestablishment - information unknown to the general public. Books of this ilk can be dry, but Mr. Wills artfully weaves the threads of cold, hard history together, compelling the reader to continue. Great insights into the personalities behind the topic. A great book to start one's exploration of church/state separation. Even if you're already well aquainted with the subject, there are jewels of little-known information here that are worth picking up.