One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America (54 page)

24
. Graham,
Just as I Am,
202; transcript, “Government Under God,” International Council for Christian Leadership, Annual Christian Action Conference, 4 February 1954, Box 819, PPF-DDE;
International Christian Leadership Bulletin,
March 1954, RRF.

25
. Transcript, International Council for Christian Leadership, Third Annual Prayer Breakfast, 3 February 1955, copy in Box 819, PPF-DDE;
Bulletin of International Christian Leadership,
March 1955, RRF; program, International Council for Christian Leadership, Annual Christian Action Conference, February 3–5, 1955, Box 504, RFF.

26
. Remarks of the President, 2 February 1956, Box 14, SS-DDE;
Bulletin of International Christian Leadership,
March 1956, RRF;
CSM,
2 February 1956, 21 March 1956.

27
. Ezra Taft Benson,
Cross Fire: The Eight Years with Eisenhower
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962), 36–38.

28
. Ibid., 49; Herbert S. Parmet,
Eisenhower and the American Crusades
(New York: Macmillan, 1972), 176; Edward L. R. Elson to Eisenhower, 14 January 1953, Box 401, CF-DDE; Eisenhower to cabinet members, 3 February 1953, Box 1, CS-DDE; minutes of cabinet meeting, 6 February 1953, Box 1, CS-DDE.

29
. Parmet,
Eisenhower and the American Crusades,
168, 186. For an overview of Dulles's religious faith and its influence on his public life, see Preston,
Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith,
384–409, 450–464.

30
. Committee to Proclaim Liberty, Press Release, 11 June 1951, Box 69, JCI; note, Oveta Culp Hobby [February 1953], Box 1, CS-DDE.

31
. Benson,
Cross Fire,
47–48; G. Bromley Oxnam to Dulles, 24 June 1952, Box 63, JFD; minutes of National Conference on Maintenance of United States Constitutional Separation of Church and State, 13 October 1947, Box 16, AUSCS; Fulton J. Sheen to Dulles, 2 December 1952, Box 64, JFD;
The Secretary of State on Faith of Our Fathers
(Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1954), 2, 6, copy in Box 58, JFD.

32
. Sidney Hatkin to William L. White, 4 February 1954, Box 6, ACLU; Hatkin to White, 18 April 1954, Box 6, ACLU; program, Pentagon Good Friday service, 16 April 1954, Box 6, ACLU; Leo Pfeffer to Herbert Monte Levy, 4 March 1954, Box 6, ACLU; minutes, Free Speech Committee, American Civil Liberties Union,
16 March 1954, Box 6, ACLU; confidential memorandum, Theodore Leskes to Nathaniel H. Goodrich, 2 March 1954, Box 6, ACLU.

33
. Peter Lyon,
Eisenhower: Portrait of the Hero
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1974), 466–467; Parmet,
Eisenhower and the American Crusades,
170–171; Ann Fears Crawford and Jack Keever,
John B. Connally: A Portrait in Power
(Austin, TX: Jenkins, 1973), 81.

34
. Parmet,
Eisenhower and the American Crusades,
171–172; Benson,
Cross Fire,
33–34; Robert H. Ferrell, ed.,
The Eisenhower Diaries
(New York: Norton, 1981), 227; T.R.B., “Washington Wire,”
New Republic,
15 December 1952; Adams,
Firsthand Report,
62.

35
. “The Shape of Things,”
The Nation,
24 January 1953, 61; Claude Robinson to Sinclair Weeks, 24 March 1953, Box 48, SW; Opinion Research Corporation, “Business Leaders in Washington,” report, March 1953, Box 48, SW.

36
. Eisenhower to Edgar Newton Eisenhower, 8 November 1954,
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower,
volume XV,
The Presidency: The Middle Way.

37
. Stephen E. Ambrose,
Eisenhower: The President
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984), 115, 158, 249–250, 459–460; Eisenhower,
Mandate for Change,
501–502, 547–549; Rick Perlstein,
Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
(New York: Hill and Wang, 2001), 27.

38
. Clyde W. Taylor to the President, 10 April 1953, Box 830, PPF-DDE.

39
. Memorandum for Mr. Stephens, 19 May 1953, Box 830, PPF-DDE; memo for Betty Sisk, 12 June 1953, Box 830, PPF-DDE.

40
. Rutherford L. Decker to Carl F. H. Henry, 25 May 1953, Box 66, NAE; promotional poster, March of Freedom, n.d. [1953], Box 66, NAE. After providing its inspiration, Carl Henry had not been involved in the development of the program and was horrified to see what had resulted. He had envisioned an event with real meaning to evangelical Christianity, but considered this list to be little more than a “promotional gimmick” that was “a big disappointment.” See Henry to Decker, 28 May 1953, Box 66, NAE.

41
. R. L. Decker, “March of Freedom,” typescript, 1 June 1953, Box 66, NAE; memorandum, “A Description of the March of Freedom,” Box 66, NAE.

42
. Jaeger and Jessen Inc., “Advance File on March of Freedom,” n.d. [1953], Box 66, NAE.

43
. National Association of Evangelicals, “March of Freedom News,” n.d. [1953], Box 66, NAE;
CSM,
2 July 1953;
NYT
, 3 July 1953;
WP,
3 July 1953;
Time,
15 July 1953; Decker, “March of Freedom.”

44
.
Faith and Freedom,
June 1953, 10–12; “Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land,” pamphlet, Box 69, JCI; Earl Warren, Independence Day proclamation, 29 June 1953, copy in Box 69, JCI.

45
. Frederic Fox, “The National Day of Prayer,”
Theology Today,
October 1972, 260; Fulton J. Sheen to Eisenhower, 6 May 1953, and Eisenhower to Sheen, 13 May 1953; memorandum for Mr. Shanley, 3 June 1953; National Day of Prayer proclamation, June 1953, all in Box 737, OF-DDE.

46
. Miller,
Piety Along the Potomac,
42; Eisenhower to Francis Joseph Spellman, 8 July 1953, copy in
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower,
volume XIV,
The Presidency: The Middle Way

CHAPTER 4: PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE

1
.
CT
, 18 May 1954;
BG,
18 May 1954; Richard Kluger,
Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Racial Equality
(New York: Vintage, 1975), 702, 708; US Congress, 83rd Cong., 1st Sess., S.J. Res. 87.

2
. Morton Borden, “The Christian Amendment,”
Civil War History,
June 1979, 156–167; Kramnick and Moore,
The Godless Constitution,
144–149.

3
. Ralph E. Flanders,
Senator from Vermont
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1961), 122–131, 171–178; Flanders, “Business Looks at the N.R.A.,”
Atlantic Monthly,
November 1933, 625–634; Ben Pearse, “The Case of the Unexpected Senator,”
Saturday Evening Post,
31 July 1954, 65; Flanders to Julius C. Holmes, 12 May 1952, Box 106, RF; Flanders to Frank Carlson, 14 May 1952, Box 106, RF.

4
. See, for instance, Testimony of Mrs. P. de Shishmareff and A. J. MacFarland, US Congress, Senate, 83rd Cong., 2nd Sess., Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, Judiciary Committee, “Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Recognizing the Authority and Law of Jesus Christ,” 13 and 17 May 1954 (hereafter cited as “Christian Amendment Hearings”), 3, 25.

5
. Testimony of R. E. Robb, Christian Amendment Hearings, 26–31. Robb's arguments on the “twofold” nature of the Constitution of the United States appear to have been considerably drawn from the work of the nineteenth-century Transcendentalist author Orestes A. Brownson. See Brownson,
The American Republic: Constitution, Tendencies and Destiny
(New York: P. O'Shea, 1866), especially chapter X.

6
. Testimony of J. Renwick Patterson, Christian Amendment Hearings, 44.

7
. 343 US 312–313.

8
. Epstein, “Ceremonial Deism,” 2091.

9
. Ibid.

10
. Richard J. Ellis,
To the Flag: The Unlikely History of the Pledge of Allegiance
(Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2005), 24–33.

11
. Ibid., 13–19.

12
. Ibid., 54–71;
Time,
17 May 1954;
NYT
, 22 April 1953.

13
. Christopher J. Kauffman,
Faith and Fraternalism: The History of the Knights of Columbus, 1882–1982
(New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 137, 377, 385; “Let's Get This Clear,”
Columbia,
August 1955, 3;
Knights of Columbus News,
24 May 1954, copy in periodicals collection, KC.

14
.
WP,
14 November 1961; Ellis,
To the Flag,
131; extension of remarks by Louis C. Rabaut, 21 April 1953, CR, Appendix, A2063.

15
.
ADA World,
September 1953, 2A. The ADA charted legislators' liberalism by scoring their stances on eleven key issues during the 1953 term. With a perfect ADA score, Rabaut took the liberal position on every single issue.

16
.
The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935–1971
(New York: Random House, 1972), 2:1140;
LAT
, 11 May 1953; Ellis,
To the Flag,
131–132.

17
. George M. Docherty,
I've Seen the Day
(Grand Rapids, MI: William C. Eerdmans, 1984), 139–149, 169–174;
WP,
3 February 1952.

18
. Program, the Seventh Washington Pilgrimage, “This Nation Under God,” April 1957, Box 1, HD;
WP,
10 January 1950, 27 September 1951, 12 January, 19 April, 5 May 1952, 6 July 2002;
NYT
, 20, 29 September 1951;
CSM,
29 September 1951; Docherty,
I've Seen the Day,
158–159.

19
. George M. Docherty, “Under God,” sermon preached at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, DC, 7 February 1954, copy located online,
www.nyapc.org/congregation/Sermon_Archives/text/1954/undergodsermon.pdf
, accessed 21 January 2011;
WP,
6 July 2002.

20
. Docherty, “Under God.”

21
. Ibid. In later decades, Docherty would express reservations about his sermon, especially the comments toward atheists. “I still consider my reasoning to be valid,” he wrote in his 1984 autobiography, “but the times should have overruled my philosophical arguments as irrelevant in light of the greater issues at hand. A false patriotism was being aroused by the bogus threat of Communist encroachment; McCarthyism darkened the airwaves; superpatriots were prone to ask not whether they were on God's side, but whether God was on theirs.” Politically, Docherty drifted ever more to the left in the ensuing decades, marching with Martin Luther King Jr. in the Selma protests and supporting his criticism of the Vietnam War. See Docherty,
I've Seen the Day,
160 (quotation), 187–266.

22
. Docherty,
I've Seen the Day,
159;
Newsweek,
31 May 1954; Gerard Kaye and Ferenc M. Szasz, “Adding ‘Under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance,”
Encounter
34 (1973): 52;
WP,
6 July 2002; Albert J. Drake to Dwight D. Eisenhower, 10 March 1954, Box 10, GF-DDE; Sherman Adams to Edward J. Cronin, 3 June 1954, Box 10, GF-DDE;
NYT
, 23 May 1954.

23
.
Christian Century,
26 May 1954; Alan Reitman, memorandum to Washington office, 24 May 1954, Box 1, ACLU;
Church and State,
June 1954, 7.

24
. Specifically, the resolutions and their main sponsors in the 83rd Congress were, in order of bill introduction, H.J. Res. 243 (Louis C. Rabaut, Michigan Democrat); H.J. Res. 334 (John R. Pillion, New York Republican); H.J. Res. 345 (William E. Miller, New York Republican); H.J. Res. 371 (Charles Oakman, Michigan Republican); H.J. Res. 383 (Oliver P. Bolton, Ohio Republican); H.J. Res. 479 (Melvin Laird, Wisconsin Republican); H.J. Res. 497 (Peter J. Rodino, New Jersey Democrat); H.J. Res. 502 (Francis E. Dorn, New York Republican); H.J. Res. 506 (Hugh J. Addonizio, New Jersey Democrat); H.J. Res. 513 (William T. Granahan, Pennsylvania Democrat); H.J. Res. 514 (Barratt O'Hara, Illinois Democrat); H.J. Res. 518 (Thomas J. Lane, Massachusetts Democrat); H.J. Res. 519 (John P. Saylor, Pennsylvania Republican); H.J. Res. 521 (John J. Rooney, New York Democrat); H.J. Res. 523 (John E. Fogarty, Rhode Island Democrat); H.J. Res. 529 (Homer T. Angell, Oregon Republican); H.J. Res. 531 (Frazier Reams, Ohio Independent). Information from Louis C. Rabaut to Dwight D. Eisenhower, 9 June 1954, Box 443, OF-DDE.

25
.
ADA World,
September 1954, 2M-3M.

26
. US Congress, House, 83rd Cong., 2nd Sess.,
CR,
12 February 1954–1700. Oakman's conservatism was made clear in the ADA rankings for that year's legislative
session. While Rabaut took the progressive side of an issue in eight of the nine votes used by the ADA that year, Oakman only did so in two of the nine. See
ADA World,
September 1954, 2M.

27
. US Congress, House, 83rd Cong., 2nd Sess.,
CR,
12 February 1954, 1697–1700.

28
.
WP,
18 May 1954; US Congress, House, 83rd Cong., 2nd Sess.,
CR,
5 May 1954, 6077–6078; US Congress, House, Report No. 1693, “Amending the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States,” 83rd Cong., 2nd Sess., 28 May 1954; US Congress, House, 83rd Cong., 2nd Sess.,
CR,
7 June 1954, 7758–7766; Kaye and Szasz, “Adding ‘Under God,'” 53.