A couple years ago I picked up Jon Meacham’s book American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. It’s an incredible story that covers the history of religion in the United States from colonial times into the early years of the 21st century.
At this time of deep division in our country, and one where we are debating whether or not to allow Muslims from certain countries to enter, it seems the appropriate book to revisit.
There are two predominant views in American life when it comes to religion. One is identified as the conservative point of view. It follows the narrative that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and needs to get back to its roots.
The other is what many would call the liberal perspective. It states that America was meant to be a secular nation and that God and religion have no place in the public square.
As Meacham points out so unequivocally in the introduction of American Gospel, neither of these views are correct.
The great good news about America – the American gospel, if you will – is that religion shapes the life of the nation without strangling it. Belief in God is central the country’s experience, yet for the broad center, faith is a matter of choice, not coercion, and the legacy of the Founding is that the sensible center holds.
Meacham moves forward and compellingly makes his case from American history. He also does not avoid addressing arguments against such a view.
He notes that some claim that the Founders views of religion were based on those of privileged white men living in a predominately Protestant Christian society. Therefore they were not interested in a religiously pluralistic society.
Meacham takes this argument on quite effectively.
Yet for their time and place, the diversity of sects, though mostly Christian, amounted to a more diverse country than we think. “The bosom of America,” Washington said, was to be “open to receive….the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges…They may be Mohometans, Jews or Christians of any sect, or they may be atheists.”
Meacham’s thoroughly researched book explores that incredible balance between religion and secularism. It is so uniquely American and such a vital part of our country’s character. He looks at how religion has helped make us a better people. He also does not shy away from some of the darker deeds that religion was used to justify.
In his Afterword, Meacham writes:
America has a story to tell about religious freedom. Our tale is far from perfect, and it is not always delightful, for our history is stained with evil and bloodshed and discrimination, from slavery to Jim Crow to our perennial failure to lift up the poorest amongst us. But is is still, even so a good story , for we have survived the storms of six centuries – from the founding of Virginia in the sixteenth to the first years of the twenty-first – and remain, for all our faults what John Winthrop called a “city upon a hill.”
In that city, we must vigilantly guard against religiously tinged strife. Christians who think that the more secular, or even just more liberal, are godless, are as wrong as secularists who believe the more religious, or even just the more conservative, are superstitious zealots.
If any of this intrigues you, I cannot recommend American Gospel enough. I believe you will find it eye opening and enlightening. And if you’re a history geek like me, you’ll also see it’s quite an entertaining tale.
Please let me know what you think of Jon Meacham’s American Gospel.
And don’t forget. If you have not picked up your free copy of my new book Why We Need Great Stories, you can get it at this link.