Eisenhower's America: Anti-Communism and Civil Religion in the 1950s

In the aftermath of World War II, the former colonial powers finally lost their last vestiges of power on the global stage. Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Japan were set about the task of rebuilding, leaving a significant power vacuum which two new rising powers were more than happy to fill. The shaky alliance between the United States and Russia was no longer a necessity, and the two superpowers began moving to spread their rival spheres of influence to the newly independent former colonies.

The United States and the Soviet Union would become both the antithesis and the reflection of one another, each looming on the other's horizon, an unseen hand hovering over a button that would bring the world as they knew it to a terrible end. In the United States, the "Soviet Menace" shaped American society like no other force that had come before it. Conformity, traditional values, and civil duty were the cornerstones of mainstream society.

Women left the factories, replaced by men returning from the war, and returned to the home to fulfill a more traditional female role. Congress, eager to justify its extensive defense budget, employed propaganda promoting civil duty and creating an atmosphere of fear. Joseph McCarthy waged his war against communists in the state department, while all over the country professional "black-lists" swelled with the named of suspected communists. Automobiles began to dominate the landscape, bringing with them not only increased mobility, but a new sense of freedom which would spark the development of a distinct and recognizable youth culture. In the south, the first rumblings of the Civil Rights movement were just beginning, and in the north, rock and roll was creeping onto the airways. Revolutionary writers like Jack Kerouac and JD Salinger butted heads with conservative social mores, setting the tone for the tumultuous Sixties and Seventies.

New ideas were scorned and thought to be dangerous and subversive. In 1951, a reporter from the Madison [Wisconsin] Capital-Times attended the downtown Independence Day festivities to attempt to persuade attendees to sign a petition composed of quotes from the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. The reporter approached approximately one hundred people, but received only one signature. Those who declined did so "on the grounds that the ideas in the petition were communist, un-American, or in some other way subversive." (Canipe, 2003, p. 311)

It was also during this time that the United States saw a revival of religiosity. This discussion will explore why that revival occurred, and what effect it had on American Society, focusing on the time from Truman's election in 1948 to Kennedy's assassination in 1963, which special regard to

1. Civil Religion

2. Mainstream Religion

By considering these two sides of the religious coin, one may be able to gain a clearer picture of that time in America's history.

Civil Religion

Civil Religion is the use of religious symbols and traditions by a secular government. In the United States, this refers to phrases such as "In God We Trust" and "One Nation, Under God", Christmas trees in the White House, and prayer at the beginning of each session of Congress.

"Under God"

In recent years, the phrase "One Nation, Under God", has come under fire as a violation of the First Amendment. However, the Supreme Court, in the2005 Myers v Loudoun case, determined that "ceremonial deism" was allowable as it lacks reference to a single religion or belief.

In his 2003 article, Lee Canipe outlined the origins of the phrase "Under God" in the American Cold War period. According to Canipe, the Pledge of Allegiance first appeared in 1892, as an "oath of allegiance" reading "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all", written by Francis Bellamy. In 1923, the phrase "my flag" was replaced with "the Flag of the United States", and in 1924, "America" was added to "the United States". These moves were to foster loyalty in immigrants to the states. In 1945, Congress made the "Pledge" the official pledge of allegiance. (p. 310)

In 1953, Representative Louis Rabault (D-Mich) introduced a bill to Congress to insert the phrase "under god" into the pledge. The idea had been submitted to Congress a few months before, with the backing of the Knights of Columbus, by Edmund Radwan (R - NY), but that resolution went unnoticed. Rabault's resolution would also go largely unnoticed. No action was taken on the resolution until a year later, when a Presbyterian pastor from New York threw his support behind the idea of adding 'under god' to the pledge. George M. Docherty, in his Lincoln Day sermon, claimed that "without 'under god' ... the Pledge of Allegiance could legitimately be the pledge of any republic, even that of the Soviet Union". (p. 314-316).

In Congress, there existed little to no opposition to the proposal. To oppose it would be to appear anti-American and soft on communism, a political disastrous combination. (p. 318), only one Representative voiced any qualms about the addition of the phrase. Rep. Kenneth Keating (NY) questioned whether adding words would compromise a "work of American literature". Keating represented the district in which the original author's son lived. Bellamy's concerns were not, however, with the content of the addition. (p. 318-319) In June 1954, both Houses of Congress passed the resolution, and on Flag Day, 1954, it was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. (p. 219).

The addition of the phrase "Under God" was a reflection of the sentiments of the era. According to historian Ronald Oakley, many Americans "equated Christianity with Americanism and saw the world locking in a life-and-death struggle between godless Communism and Christian democracy". Belief in a religion was synonymous with belief in America and American values, regardless of what that religion may be. President Eisenhower was a strong supporter of this idea. During his 1952 campaign, he stated "Our government makes no sense unless it is founded on a deeply felt religious faith", adding "and I don't care what it is." (p. 313)

Theology

The God of American Civil religion was not necessarily the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition, or of any religious tradition at all. There were no theological requirements for this God, only a vague adherence to moral values. When asked what these values entailed, Eisenhower replied "Honesty, decency, fairness, service... that sort of thing." A quote from J. Edgar Hoover in the February of 1953 provides the best reflection of the shallow theology of American civil religion: "Since Communists are anti-God, encourage your children to go to church."

Mainstream Religion

A 1954 Gallup poll found that 79 percent of Americans were church-goers and 96 percent believed in God (Canipe, p. 312), compared with a 2006 CBS news poll that found that only 82% of Americans believe in God. Church attendance was seen as a form of social conformity, and non-conformity was seen as un-American and pro-communist. Atheism, especially, was synonymous with communism (Mart, 2004, p. 111).

Judeo-Christian Tradition

Most Americans during this period (9 out of 10 surveyed in 1954) were of a Christian faith, and in 1952, Eleanor Roosevelt observed "It seems to me... we are a Protestant country." (Mart, 2004, p. 110). There existed a belief that only Christianity could provide the moral backbone necessary to ensure a safe and stable America, and thus world (p. 111). However, during this time there was a growing focus on the "Judeo-Christian" tradition, perhaps in response to Soviet oppression of Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia. Before the Cold War, anti-Semitist attitudes held sway over the American military and culture. With the onset of the Cold War, America developed an acceptance of its Jewish community, albeit within the blanket of the Judeo-Christian tradition (p. 109).

The development of the Judeo-Christian tradition developed from the idea of a "Protestant-Catholic-Jew" triad as a path to assimilation in American society (Herberg, 1960, p. 87). Reinhold Niebuhr described this process:

The religious community allows the new Americans to rid themselves of their foreignness and yet at the same time to preserve contact with the European culture of their past. But they do not feel these religious communities to be European, for to be Protestant, Catholic, or Jew [sic] is very definitely a part of the American way of life. (Neibuhr, 1955)

Prior to the beginning of the Cold War, there were strong anti-Semitic feelings in the U.S., especially after World War I, when Jews were associated with the revolution in Russia. Laws were passed in the United States that favored Christians, immigration policy was structured to keep out Jews along with other 'undesirables' (primarily from Eastern Europe), and there were cases of employment ads specifying that applicants be "Christian-Only". One poll at the end of the 1930s found that sixty percent of respondents had a negative view of Jews (Mart, 2004, p. 114).

Following World War II, there was a push for assimilation and cooperation between the Judaism and Christianity to fight the Red Menace. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and subsequent writings on them reinforced theological connections between the two religions. (Mart, 2004, p. 116), while the birth of the modern state of Israel forged a bond, real or imagined, between the American people and the Israeli people based on the perception of Arabs as being in the same vein of evil as the Soviets. As well, the creation of a state of Israel was key to certain Christian beliefs about the end of the world as predicted in the Book of Revelations. While other factors played into the American support of Israel, not least of which was the pursuit of an ally in the oil-rich but volatile Middle East, religion certainly factored more heavily in the hearts and minds of the American people (p. 117).

Rise of Evangelism

After the end of the war in 1945, the United States saw an increase in the funding of religious charities, which in turn bolstered the budding evangelical movement. Neo-evangelicals like Billy Graham and Carl Henry led a new movement which embraced theological orthodoxy and rejected liberal social gospel. The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), founded in 1956, backed legislative campaigns, founded the National Religious Broadcasters, and trained Christians for government positions (Schafer, 2007, pp. 22-24). Most importantly, according to A.R. Schafer:

In the half century after the end of World War II, white evangelical Protestants sought and attained a measure of sociocultural legitimacy, theological authority, internal unity, and political influence that they had not experienced since the nineteenth century. They moved away from cultural isolation, social withdrawal and political marginality to become a significant political and cultural force in American society. (Schafer, 2007, p. 24)

Protestant-Catholic Tensions

Interestingly, during this period, anti-Catholic literature gained influence in America, as evidenced by the presence of Paul Blanshard's American Freedom and Catholic Power, a book critical of the Catholic Hierarchy and its power in the United States, on the New York Times Best Seller list for seven months. The author called for candid discussion of the matter of Catholic influence in government, writing:

.... The policy of mutual silence about religious differences is a reasonable policy in matter of private faith; but when it comes to matter of political, medical, and educational principle, silence may be directly contrary to public welfare. When a church enters the arena of controversial social policy and attempts to control the judgment of its own people (and of other people) on foreign affairs, social hygiene, public education and modern science, it must be reckoned with as an organ of political and cultural power. (Massa, 2002, pp. 320-321)

In response to Blanshard's arguments, Catholic theologian and political theorist John C. Murray published his "Paul Blanshard and the New Nativism", which would become the "most compelling intellectual response to Protestant and secular fears of a Catholic breach of Thomas Jefferson's 'wall of separation between church and state.'" (p. 321) Muray asserted that Blanshard's main argument was that Catholics were un-American, and by association, anti-American, and that his beliefs were based on warped naturalist fears, disguised as democratic values.

The tensions between Catholic and Protestants during this era, Mark Massa postulates, were not based on theological differences, but political influences and historical interactions with democratic regimes (p. 322-323).

Conclusion

Religion in America in the years following the end of World War II until the beginning of the Vietnam War was multifaceted and pervasive. The rise of civil religion, the decline of anti-Semitism and the development of the Judeo-Christian tradition, the resurgence of Evangelicalism, and the ongoing tensions between Catholics and Protestants the complex development of religion during this tumultuous period in American history.

Resources

Canipe, L. (2003). Under God and Anti-Communist: How the Pledge of Allegiance got Religion in Cold War America. Journal of Church and State , 305-323.

Herberg, W. (1960). Protestant-Catholic-Jews: An Essay in American Religious Sociology. New York: Double Day.

Mart, M. (2004). The "Christianization" of Israel and Jews in 1950s America. Religion in American Culture, 14 (01), 109-146.

Massa, M. (2002). Catholic-Protestant Tensions in Post-War America. Harvard Theological Review, 95 (03), 319-339.

Neibuhr, R. (1955). America's Three Melting Pots. NYTBR , p. 6.

Schafer, A. R. (2007). The Cold War State and the Resurgance of Evangelicalism: A Study of the Public Funding of Religion Since 1945. Radical History Review, 19-42.