Episode Details

America’s Church: The Invention of The Evangelical Christian Movement by JOSEPH JORDAN

One of the most sociologically unique aspects of the United States is the everlasting prominence of Evangelical, or Born-Again, Christians. The group is known for its literal interpretation of the Bible, espousal of Whig individualism on both spiritual and economic matters, and their rabid Zionist posture on foreign policy matters, often rationalized through end-of-the-world prophecies and a largely one-way devotion to the interests of modern day Jews and the Jewish state.

The hay day of Evangelicals appears to be behind them, but they remain the largest Christian sect in all of America (24%), only being narrowly edged out in 2022 by those who checked the generic no religion box. The main institution where their influence can be seen is the Republican Party, where they form an important constituency and play the role of zealous activists.

But Christian Zionist dominance and the contemporary religious right are relatively new. Prior to the Second World War, Evangelicals were a small, poorly received sect operating on the fringes of the American Protestant landscape. Despite lacking theology respected among rival Protestants of their time and being widely perceived as con artists and gladhanders, Evangelicals were able to triumph over their competitors and critics to become contenders for the title of America’s church.

Dwight Eisenhower’s “Judeo-Christian” Nation

In 1952, Allied General Dwight Eisenhower won a landslide victory over Democrat Adlai Stevenson on a platform promising to halt the expansion of the Soviet Union and the spread of its ideas.

Jews had traditionally been most influential within the Democratic party, but Ike was different. He was able to distinguish himself from old money WASP oriented Republican primary challengers by forming politically and financially profitable alliances with prominent Jewish figures who would later play important roles in his two administrations, such as political power broker Jacob Javits, Standard Oil oligarch Jacob Blaustein (a known Democrat), Maxwell Rabb (Eisenhower’s top advisor), and Simon Sobeloff (the Solicitor General who played a central role in overturning segregated schools in the Brown v. Board case, as well as protecting Jews during the “red scare”). These contacts, established over promises to advance the interests of American Jewry and support the recently created state of Israel, gave Eisenhower a formidable edge in press coverage and big business support during the ‘52 trouncing of Stevenson.

Mobilizing the American people in support of new foreign interventions (such as the Korean War) so soon after a massive war was a top priority for the Eisenhower administration. The problem for policy makers at the time was that America did not have a cogent state ideology capable of sustaining the planned global democracy crusade. The Eisenhower government was acutely aware of this vulnerability, since the American state, through structures such as the Dickstein Committee (later the House of Un-American Activities), spent much of the first half of the 20th century desperately trying to contain what they perceived as domestic threats: communists, socialists, isolationists, nativists, and even an incident where a German immigrant 

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