Making Jesus a Patriot

IN A RECENT interview, Wendell Berry reiterated how perplexed he was that many Christians who are guided by a deep love for God can participate so willingly in an economy that is rapidly devastating God’s creation. In his new book One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America, Princeton historian Kevin Kruse offers a narrative that sheds light on how our churches got into the mess that Berry bemoans. As the book’s subtitle indicates, the primary story that Kruse traces is that of the genesis of “Christian America,” which unfolded not in the era of the Founding Fathers, as David Barton and other conservative Christians contend, but rather in the mid-20th century with industrialists who rallied churches to oppose FDR’s New Deal.

Kruse’s story began in the 1930s with the decision of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) to invest in “spreading the gospel of free enterprise” and its alliance with an organization called Spiritual Mobilization, which carried NAM’s message of libertarian politics and free enterprise to churches across the United States. These efforts to promote the synergy of Christian faith and big business picked up steam in the 1940s and blossomed in the 1950s, finding an ally in the White House in Dwight Eisenhower. Symbolic of this movement’s successes were the inclusion of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance (1954) and the adoption of “In God We Trust” as the official motto of the U.S. (1956), both during the Eisenhower presidency.

In the 1950s, the advertising industry also jumped headlong into these efforts to promote the union of faith and free enterprise, promoting churches as hubs of this message and encouraging Americans to attend their local church regularly. Hollywood also heralded this burgeoning civic religion with films such as Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, which was promoted through a massive marketing campaign that included installing plaques of the Ten Commandments in prominent public places across the U.S.

The 1950s also saw the rise of Billy Graham’s evangelistic ministry; Kruse’s portrayal of Graham’s collaboration with the promoters of free enterprise is less than flattering. Noting that the typical account of Graham’s rise is tied to anxiety about the Cold War, Kruse documents that while that anxiety did play a role, it is better understood as part of the larger story about the American way of life that was being promoted by NAM, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and The Wall Street Journal. Graham regularly courted the interests of big business and defended this union. “[Faith] and business,” he once observed in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce publication, “properly blended, can be a happy, wholesome, and even profitable mixture.”

While Kruse’s work in One Nation Under God is a thorough and fascinating treatment of a little known thread of U.S. history, it raises a question outside the scope of his research: What was the impact of this history on churches and the ways that we imagine and embody our Christian faith?

The gospel preached in many churches today, as Berry and others have noted, is generally friendly to industry and uncritical of its sins against humanity and the earth. It seems likely that there is a correlation between the history that Kruse offers here and our present state of affairs. Perhaps by taking a hard look at our past, churches will be a little more cautious in our embrace of unfettered free enterprise.