Here it is, five weeks since the election, and I’m still looking for America. The new administration isn’t shaping up like any America I recognize. Principles of governance thousands of American soldiers fought and died for have been set aside…
One nation under God: How liberal religion dominated mid-century America
In the decade following the Second World War, the United States experienced an unprecedented religious revival. In 1958, more than 50% of Americans claimed to have attended a worship service in the previous week. By every conventional measure, the nation…
The Social Gospel ghosts of Rauschenbusch and Roosevelt haunt evangelicals still
Lurking in the carnage of the cultural un-civil war, there lies the determined opposition of many Christians to the Social Gospel. Two powerful movements in the 20th century, one theological and one political, produced a furious opposition to the Social…
A second Bill of Rights
Three years later, on January 11, 1944, FDR gave his 11th (!) State of the Union talk. He had just recently come back from an overseas trip during which he had conferred with British Prime Minister Churchill in Cairo and…
Fighting for the four freedoms
It is has been called the best State of the Union address of all time. That was President Roosevelt’s speech seventy-five years ago, on January 6, 1941. It is the one popularly known as the Four Freedoms address.