I’m almost finished with What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. Reading this and other books on this period of American history I’m struck by how milquetoast the public discussion of religion is in the political domain today in comparison. I noted below that very few individuals in Congress will admit to not having a religion, and yet I recall John Ashcroft being grilled as to the nature of his adherence to the Assemblies of God during his confirmation hearings. We live in an age when religion is good, just not too much, or too strange. In 1832 Andrew Jackson, arguably the first orthodox Christian president of the early republic, refused to set aside a day of prayer due to his strict separationism. A robust anti-clericalism and secularism was not too uncommon in some sectors of what became the Democratic party. Robust enough that Benjamin Tappan, the irreligious brother of the more famous evangelical Tappans, could win enough favor with the legislature of Ohio to be elected Senator during the period we know as the Second Great Awakening, when evangelical reformist politics were waxing.
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I think I’m going to be interested in reading that book. A lot of Americans don’t realize just how pivotal that point (rather wide “point”) in our history was. Things became so changed thereafter that nowadays it’s hard to see what came before as it was.
Bought this as a “boat book” along with Guns, Germ, & Steel, and War Made New. The trip home was faster than expected, so I only just cracked the spine. Thanks for the reminder to get it off the boat on on my nightstand table!
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From the post: “We live in an age when religion is good, just not too much, or too strange.”
That is quotable, so I’m making it official. An innocuous (in some sense of that word) public form of religion is “good” …
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