One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America, Kruse - B +

                                             This acclaimed history book tells a surprising story. Although founded by European Christians, this country only became a nation 'under God' about nine score years after said founding. It was the professional soldier and the victor of WW2, Dwight Eisenhower who introduced a self-composed prayer at his inauguration. Earlier that day, he'd required that his cabinet join him at church. Ike was baptized later that week, opened his cabinet meetings with prayers, and attended the first National Prayer Breakfast. A year later, 'under God' was added to the Pledge of Allegiance, and a year after that: 'In God We Trust' was placed on our currency. "We soon came to believe that the United States of America was "one nation under God." It all stemmed, not from the Cold War, but big business' opposition to the New Deal.  Some of the vitriol pumped out by the National Association of Manufacturers is astounding.  Most of the upper echelons of the business world characterized the New Deal as a "denial of God." The growth of government was crippling initiative and morality, thus leading to over ten thousand ministers (almost all Protestant) signing up for the Spiritual Mobilization, an entity fully funded by big business in an effort to reverse the 20 years of Roosevelt and Truman. It's surprising to read 60 years after the fact that social security and veterans benefits were deemed sinful. Then, as now, so-called men of God endlessly interfered in the politics of the nation. "The vultures are now circling our debt ridden inflationary economy with its fifteen-year record of deficit finance and with its staggering national debt, to close in for the kill." That, in 1951, from Billy Graham. Hollywood joined the fray with dozens of biblical productions (The Ten Commandments being the apogee) and also countless religious activities led by Walt Disney, Ronnie Reagan, Jimmy Stewart and many more. Billy Graham toured the country and held endless crusades. Wasn't the wall between church and state shrinking, if not outright crumbling? Not according to a Yale law professor, who opined that 'ceremonial deism' was well within the rules.   It took a very religious man, a man who sent his children to Sunday school and who had profound belief in God to begin to turn the tide. Chief Justice Earl Warren and almost all of his colleagues pointed out that things like the Regents Prayer, mandated in NYS, and bible reading, which took place throughout the nation, really weren't 'ceremonial deism', but rather the compulsion of prayer by the state. And as such, they were not allowed.
                                          Nonetheless, the sacralization of government and politics has continued. Adopting God a religion are almost absolute requirements for national leaders. Reagan was the first president to close a speech with the phrase 'God bless America". Barack Obama does it today. Both Bushes and Clinton touted their commitment to religion. As for me, I'm with our third president and "the wall of separation between church and state."