How have religion and morality shaped the United States? On this episode of Now & Then, “God & Morality in American Politics,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss how politicians and reformers have interacted with faith systems, from Thomas Jefferson’s push for religious liberty, to the 19th-century move for a Christian constitutional amendment, to the rise of the Moral Majority and the religious right. What are the roots of recent calls to bring religion into our government? What are the risks of religious influence in politics? How have presidents protected and rejected faith movements, and what can their choices teach us today?
I still remember how indignant some of us junior high students were when our mandatory pledge of allegiance broke up "One nation, indivisible" by sticking "under God" in there. Bad sentence structure! Faulty logic! What is God doing in school--God should stay in church! Of course we [Silent Generation] didn't dare say any of our thoughts aloud in class. I smiled hearing this intrusion discussed in the podcast.
I still remember how indignant some of us junior high students were when our mandatory pledge of allegiance broke up "One nation, indivisible" by sticking "under God" in there. Bad sentence structure! Faulty logic! What is God doing in school--God should stay in church! Of course we [Silent Generation] didn't dare say any of our thoughts aloud in class. I smiled hearing this intrusion discussed in the podcast.