One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America (53 page)

31
. Martin,
A Prophet with Honor,
144;
WP,
15 July 1950; Loughlin,
Billy Graham,
108–109.

32
. Billy Graham to “Dear Pastor,” 5 January 1952, Box 1, WH; invitation, Business Men's Luncheon Meetings, Greater Washington Evangelistic Crusade, n.d. [1951], Box 1, WH;
WP,
5 May 1951; A. S. Herlong Jr., Clarence G. Burton, Katherine St. George, and Vereide to Members of the House Breakfast Group, 14 December 1951, Box 504, RFF; Donald Scott McAlpine, “Mr. Christian of Washington,”
United Evangelical Action,
1 July 1954, 6; Gibbs and Duffy,
The Preacher and the Presidents,
26–27.

33
.
WP,
13, 21, 26–27 January, 16 February 1952; prayer card, n.d. [1952], Box 1, WH; Martin E. Marty,
Under God, Indivisible: Modern American Religion
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 3:153; “Rockin' the Capitol,”
Time,
13 March 1952;
LAT
, 24 January 1952.

34
. Gibbs and Duffy,
The Preacher and the Presidents,
27; William Martin,
With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America
(New York: Broadway Books, 1996), 31;
CSM,
4 February 1952;
BG,
4 February 1952;
LAT
, 4 February 1952;
WP,
4 February 1952.

35
. Martin,
A Prophet with Honor,
132; Joan M. Morris to Harry S. Truman, 31 July 1950, Box 12, White House Central Files, Public Opinion Mail File, HST.

36
. Diary entry, 18 February 1952, in
Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman,
ed. Robert H. Ferrell (New York: Harper & Row, 1980), 239. In the King James Version of the Bible, the first six verses of the sixth chapter of the Book of Matthew read: “Take heed that ye do not your alms before me, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of me. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

37
.
CR,
5 February 1952, 771;
BG,
5 February 1952.

38
. Frederic Fox, “The National Day of Prayer,”
Theology Today
29, no. 3 (October 1972): 258–259. The quotation within the presidential proclamation cited the language of the resolution. See
CR,
14 February 1952, 977–978.

39
. Martin,
With God on Our Side,
31.

40
. Paul Hutchinson, “The President's Religious Faith,”
Life,
22 May 1954, 151–153; Jerry Bergman, “President Eisenhower and the Influence of the Jehovah's Witnesses,”
Kansas History,
Autumn 1998, 149–167.

41
. Martin,
A Prophet with Honor,
147; Paul Hutchinson, “The President's Religious Faith,”
Life,
22 May 1954, 156; Carlo D'Este,
Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life
(New York: Holt, 2003), 527.

42
. Dwight D. Eisenhower to Clifford Roberts, 29 July 1952, Box 27, NS-DDE; news clipping, “Dwight D. Eisenhower's Bible-Based Legacy,” Box 48, FEF;
NYT,
4 May 1948.

43
. Connally,
In History's Shadow,
143; Graham, “God Is My Witness,” 64; Graham,
Just as I Am,
188–189; Frady,
Billy Graham,
255.

44
. Graham,
Just as I Am,
190; Martin,
A Prophet with Honor,
147; Reston,
Lone Star,
164.

45
.
LAT
, 5 June 1952;
CSM,
5 June 1952;
NYT
, 5 June 1952.

46
.
CSM,
12 July 1952;
BS,
12 July 1952; Graham,
Just as I Am,
191; Gibbs and Duffy,
The Preacher and the Presidents,
38–39; Eisenhower to Arthur B. Langlie, 11 August 1952, Box 966, PPF-DDE.

47
. M. J. Heale,
American Anticommunism: Combatting the Enemy Within, 1830–1970
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 161; Loughlin,
Billy Graham,
110–112, 115; Frady,
Billy Graham,
254.

48
. John W. Turnbull to Herman Smith, 29 September 1952, Box 246, AES.

49
. For his part, Niebuhr denounced Spiritual Mobilization as a front group for business, an organization that “has a political program identical with that of the National Association of Manufacturers, to which it adds merely a prayer and religious unction.” Reinhold Niebuhr, “U.S. Protestantism and Free Enterprise,”
The Reporter
6, no. 4 (19 February 1952): 26. Fifield angrily denied the charges as “untrue” in his own journal; “The Director's Page,”
Faith and Freedom,
April 1952, 13. See also Martin E. Marty, “Reinhold Niebuhr: Public Theology and the American Experience,”
Journal of Religion
54, no. 4 (October 1974): 332–359, especially 349.

50
. John W. Turnbull to Herman Smith, 29 September 1952, Box 246, AES; Christian Action, draft of press release, 24 October 1952, Box 246, AES; Chairman to John W. Turnbull, 30 October 1952, Box 246, AES; Charles W. Phillips to Hermon D. Smith, Box 246, AES;
LAT
, 31 October 1952.

51
.
Christian Leadership News,
August 1952, 5, copy in Box 106, RF; Sharlet,
The Family,
194.

52
. “The Christian's Political Responsibility,”
Faith and Freedom,
September 1952, 5–8; John Temple Graves, “Eisenhower's Convictions,”
Charleston News and Courier,
10 September 1952.

53
.
WP,
6 November 1952.

54
. Graham,
Just as I Am,
199; Frady,
Billy Graham,
257.

CHAPTER 3: “GOVERNMENT UNDER GOD”

1
.
BG,
23 December 1952;
LAT
, 23 December 1952;
NYT
, 23 December 1952.

2
. For an exhaustive account of the many reactions to, and uses of, Eisenhower's comment, see Patrick Henry, “‘And I Don't Care What It Is': The Tradition-History of a Civil Religion Proof-Text,”
Journal of the American Academy of Religion,
March 1981, 35–49.

3
. William Lee Miller,
Piety Along the Potomac: Notes on Politics and Morals in the Fifties
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964), 34; Robert N. Bellah, “Civil Religion in America,”
Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
Winter 1967, 1–21; Will Herberg,
Protestant-Catholic-Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 84.

4
. Paul Hutchinson, “The President's Religious Faith,”
Life,
22 March 1954, 162; Eckhardt,
The Surge of Piety,
22–23; Whitfield,
Culture of the Cold War,
83; Luther G. Baker, “Changing Religious Norms and Family Values,”
Journal of Marriage and the Family
27 (1965): 6; Rosten,
Religions in America,
327.

5
.
NYT
, 2 June 1949, 22 April 1950, 23 December 1952, 22 February 1953;
LAT
, 24 June 1949, 6 April 1951, 23 December 1952;
CT
, 22 November 1949; Freedoms Foundation Annual Report, “Four Years Work for Freedom,” 31 August 1953, Box 5, DB;
WP,
10 February 1950.

6
. First Congregational Church, “Fifteenth Anniversary Program,” 8 January 1950, Box 206, CBD; Don Belding to Eisenhower, 18 June 1952, Box 5, DB; National Better Business Bureau, Report on Freedoms Foundation, Inc., 11 December 1952, Papers of the Americanism Division, ALM;
LAT,
6 April 1951; Roy,
Apostles of Discord,
298; photograph, Freedoms Foundation Medal, “Committee to Proclaim Liberty ‘Freedom Under God,'” 1951, Box 69, JCI;
CT
, 22 November 1949; Dwight D. Eisenhower, Text of Prepared Remarks, “Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, November 21, 1949,” Box 5, DB.

7
. Don Belding, “My First Meeting with General Eisenhower,” 10 September 1948, Box 5, DB; Freedoms Foundation Annual Report, “Four Years Work for Freedom,” 31 August 1953, Box 5, DB.

8
. Eisenhower, Notarized Statement, Cook County, Illinois, 28 June 1952, Box 5, DB; Freedoms Foundation Annual Report, “Four Years Work for Freedom,” 31 August 1953, Box 5, DB.

9
. Eisenhower to Clifford Roberts, 29 July 1952, Box 27, NS-DDE; Graham,
Just as I Am,
191–192.

10
. Diary entry, 1 February 1953, in
The Eisenhower Diaries,
ed. Robert H. Ferrell (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), 226. For greater detail on Elson's promises of privacy and the president's reaction to the unwanted publicity, see Dwight D. Eisenhower to Milton S. Eisenhower, 2 February 1953, copy in
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower,
volume XIV:
The Presidency: The Middle Way,
ed. Louis Galambos and Daun Van Ee (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).

11
. Whitfield,
Culture of the Cold War,
88; James Hagerty, interview by Ed Edwin, Columbia University Oral History Project, Interview 7, 17 April 1968, copy of transcript located in Oral History #91, OH-DDE. Emphasis added.

12
. American Legion, Digest of Minutes, National Executive Committee Meetings, 24 and 28 August 1952, 84, Reference Room, AL; American Legion, Digest of Minutes, National Executive Committee Meetings, October 1952, 36, Reference Room, AL; American Legion, “Back to God: Grace Before Meals” table card, Papers of the Americanism Division, ALM.

13
. American Legion, Reports to the 35th Annual National Convention, August 1953, 126–127, Reference Room, AL;
CSM,
30 January 1953;
BG,
1 February 1953;
CT,
2 February 1953; American Legion, Digest of Minutes, National Executive Committee Meetings, October 1953, 93, Reference Room, AL; American Legion, “Back to God” television program, 1 February 1953, Video Collection, AL, DVD copy in author's possession.

14
.
NYT
, 8 February 1942;
CT
, 3 May 1942; American Legion, 1953 “Back to God” program, Video Collection, AL.

15
. American Legion, 1953 “Back to God” program, Video Collection, AL; Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Remarks Recorded for the American Legion ‘Back to God' Program,” 1 February 1953,
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
(Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1960), 11–12.

16
. Press release, remarks of the president for “Back to God” program, 7 February 1954, Box 6, SS-DDE; Press release, remarks of the president for “Back to God” program, 20 February 1955, Box 11, SS-DDE.

17
. Sharlet,
The Family,
187;
NYT
, 22 April 1947, 22 June 1952.

18
. Robert Wuthnow,
Red State Religion: Faith and Politics in America's Heartland
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012), 207–210; Frank Carlson to Sherman Adams, 4 December 1952, Box 824, PPF-DDE; Carlson, “Background of the Presidential Prayer Breakfast,” February 1967, Box 456, RFF; Carlson, interview by David Horrocks, 7 March 1975, transcript located in Oral History #488, OH-DDE.

19
. Conrad Hilton, “America on Its Knees,” in
We Believe in Prayer,
Lawrence M. Brings, ed. (Minneapolis: T. S. Denison, 1958), 40–41;
International Christian Leadership Bulletin,
June 1953, RRF; transcript, International Council for Christian Leadership, Third Annual Prayer Breakfast, 3 February 1955, copy in Box 819, PPF-DDE.

20
. Program, International Council for Christian Leadership, Annual Christian Action Conference, 5–9 February 1953, Box 504, RFF; “The Breakfast Groups” newsletter, March 1953, RRF; Eisenhower, “Remarks at the Dedicatory Prayer Breakfast of the International Christian Leadership,” 5 February 1953,
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
(Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1960), 37–38.

21
. “The Breakfast Groups” newsletter, March 1953, RRF; Grubb,
Modern Viking,
131.

22
. “The Breakfast Groups” newsletter, March 1953, RRF; Vereide to Thomas E. Stephens, 25 February 1953, Box 819, PPF-DDE;
International Christian Leadership
Bulletin,
September 1954, RRF; news clipping,
Christian Life,
August 1955, Box 456, RFF; Doug Coe to E. Ross Adair, 10 November 1959, Box 407, RFF.

23
. Vereide to Chester McFee, 7 February 1945, Box 497, RFF;
International Christian Leadership Bulletin,
January 1954, RRF. The Army and Navy Club Breakfast Group featured a steady stream of government officials as speakers. In the months after Chief Justice Warren's “dedication ceremony,” that particular prayer breakfast featured speeches by Senator John Stennis, Secretary of Labor James Mitchell, Secretary of the Navy Robert Anderson, US District Court Judge Luther Youngdahl, and the heads of the Office of Defense Mobilization and the General Services Administration. See
International Christian Leadership Bulletin,
May 1954, RRF.