BOOK REVIEW: American Gospel

The struggle between religion and state has been a big part of the history of the United States. Since our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, the country has met with the problem of “all men are created equal” and that all “are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights”.

Jon Meacham explains how religion has shaped our country, without controlling it, in his best seller, AMERICAN GOSPEL. From our Founding Fathers through our modern presidents, Freedom of Religion has been woven throughout our history. Meacham’s book shows how the Founding Fathers worked to create a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice.

Less than one hundred years after the work on the Constitution was finished, our nation was at war over the right of a state to own slaves. Each side firmly believed that God was on their side during the Civil War.  Since that time, debates over religion and politics have proved to be more divisive than illuminating. Meacham shows us that no extreme is right. He quotes men of strong faith on all sides of an issue, including the men of no faith.

The men who shaped our nation were a group of diverse religious conviction. What Franklin called “public religion” was a belief that all humans have inalienable rights in a nation that protects private religion from government.  Lincoln later called on “the better angels of our nature” to help recover the spirit and sense of the Founding Fathers.

I found it interesting how some of our modern Presidents used religion. There was much fear when John F. Kennedy, our first Catholic president, took office. His detractors were sure that our country would be run from the Vatican. While Jimmy Carter was president, his faith was of concern. These two presidents probably worked harder to keep the wall between religion and government intact than most public officials have done.

On the other hand many presidents have used the office to further their own beliefs. Teddy Roosevelt once remarked that the office was “a bully pulpit”.

Meacham has written an informative, well researched book. It is a hard book to review without putting too much of myself into it, though I would like to make the last chapter mandated reading-- if that doesn’t go against the spirit of the book. In this chapter, Chapter VI - Our Hope for Years to Come, he opens with a quote from Thomas Jefferson: Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our God alone. I inquire after no man’s and trouble none with mine; nor is it given to us in this life to know whether yours or mine, our friend or our foe’s, are exactly right."

AMERICAN GOSPEL helps to keep a perspective on right, wrong, and the government during a time when faith and freedom have become increasingly polarized.