American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation

Jon Meacham (New York: Random House, 2006)

Is the United States a Christian nation that has lost its way? Do you wonder if this popular opinion is really true? The book, American Gospel, seeks to clarify this issue. Jon Meacham has written a readable account about the role of "public religion" in the United States. He recounts the role of faith and religion in the first colonies and the debates about faith among the authors of the Constitution. The book is a fascinating retelling of those individuals and their beliefs, and the discussions, debates and negotiations about the role faith should play in the Constitution, the presidency, and among other elected officials.

The author follows the story of the debate and compromise that formed our country's "public religion." It weaves its way through the Civil War, the Depression era, the World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, and captures the legacy of Ronald Reagan, and the Religious Right. American Gospel refreshes the memory of our childhood history lessons about the New World offering a safe haven and home to those of minority faiths. Early in our colonial history there were Huguenots, Quakers, and Baptists looking for a refuge; and, adding to the diversity, the first Jewish settlers in North America arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654.

American Gospel is a survey of American history regarding faith. Do many people know the U. S. Constitution does not mention God? Yet most do not question that the phrase "In God We Trust" is on our currency. Is it common knowledge that Theodore Roosevelt, a deeply religious man and a strong supporter of the American Bible Society, believed this phrase printed on currency was close to sacrilege and tried to have it removed? Or that John Adams anticipated some of the inclusiveness our society is now seeking when he wrote in 1818, "It has pleased the Providence of the first Cause, the Universal Cause, that Abraham should give religion not only to Hebrews but to Christians and Mahomitans, the greatest part of the modern civilized world"?

The review of our contemporary history beginning with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and continuing on with the public lives of Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Ronald Reagan and the emergence of the New Right with their claim to ownership of faith, is a refresher course in current events.

One of the premises of this book is to explain the difference between being a Christian nation and being a nation whose public religious values, although not exclusively Christian, shape its morals. The author, a journalist, does this well using clear language. The book is informative and a good read. An added bonus is the material presented in the appendices which includes the full text of selected documents on religion in America, the Presidents' choice of inaugural Bible verses, comprehensive source notes, and an extensive bibliography. Regrettably, an index is lacking. The book, however, is highly recommended.

Reviewer: Jacquelyn Sapiie

 

If you cannot find information from our old site on our new site please visit www.bibleresourcecenter.forministry.com