Book Review: American Gospel

Written by: William (Tom) Chadwell on Jun 8, 2006 10:15 PM EDT

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

Author : Jon Meacham, Managing Editor of Newsweek

One of the divides existing in our country today is between those insisting this was founded as a Christian nation and those certain an impassible wall was established by the Founders between church and state. In American Gospel, Jon Meacham lucidly describes the history of the "infinite shades of gray and nuance about when religious expression in public places is appropriate". He briskly outlines the 400-year saga which is the discussion of religion's place in the government and society of colonial America and the United States.

The early history of white settlement in North America is not all proud and just. The founding authorities in Massachusetts and Virginia may have risked everything to cross the Atlantic to escape religious persecution, but they were not above wielding the rod of persecution themselves. Meacham points out that contemporaries were aware of the irony quoting the Lord Bishop of Salisbury: "Every party cries out for Liberty & toleration till they get the uppermost, and then they will allow none."

The examples of William Penn and Roger Williams in opposition to such hypocrisy led the Founding Fathers to avoid sectarian language in codifying our national government. This is not to say they were not men of faith, and most were not shy about referring to a higher power as a principle actor in history. They largely confined their public references, though, to a non-sectarian Creator or the hand of an anonymous, but divine, Providence. Most notable of course is Jefferson's "Nature's God" of the Declaration of Independence. Such non-specific religious acknowledgements came to be seen by Franklin and others as our "public religion".

It is this public religion that Meacham chronicles extensively with a who's who of our nations leading lights presented as advocates.

With a matter-of-fact optimism he leads us through case after case when passionate sectarians sought to write their faith into our government. Each time the wisdom of Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, Douglas, Burger, and O'Conner among many others has held the line for the inclusive, against the exclusive, expression of faith in our laws and offices. His exhaustive documentation provides convincing evidence that if we remain as the authors of our Constitution, "plain honest men [and women]", there is hope to keep the "wall of separation" in its historic and rightful place.

I came away from this common sense analysis of faith's place in our public life more convinced than ever of the individual nature of spirituality in general and religion in particular. Meacham's citation of Jefferson's position says it well and colorfully.

-The legitimate powers of government extend to such
acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me
no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty
gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor
breaks my leg.-

He does not shy from asserting his conclusion from this study of our nation's struggle with questions of faith in the public arena.

-The sound and fury of our own time could be calmed
by grasping what [the Founders] had to say about
the role of faith in the nation. Respect religion, hear
it out, learn from it, then let the work of the country
unfold as the parties to the republican contract - the
Constitution - will have it.-

I have heard the author discuss his work in this book on several of the political talk shows on cable, and he consistently alludes to this message. That, more than tolerating the religion of others, we must have respect for their faith and their right to practice it. This history of our American public religion should convince most thinking people that maintaining freedom of religion for everyone is the only way to insure freedom of religion for anyone.

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