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Ronald Reagan’s religious convictions were crucial to his understanding of the world and performance as president, but few scholars have provided substantive analysis of his faith and its impact on his policies during his tenure in the White House. Although the circumstances of Reagan’s life and the seeming inconsistencies between his beliefs and his practices make his faith difficult to explain, it appears to have been genuine, very meaningful to him, and essential to his political philosophy. Reagan firmly believed and often declared that God intended America to be a beacon of hope, faith, freedom, and democracy — “a city on the hill”. Reagan was deeply influenced by his godly mother, Nelle, and raised in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Reagan’s firm belief that God had a plan for his life was fortified by his survival of an assassination attempt in March 1981. In many addresses, proclamations, letters, and private conversations, Reagan stressed his faith in God and prayer, the inspiration of the Bible, and the divinity of Jesus. Numerous leaders of the religious right were troubled by his infrequent church attendance and his wife’s interest in astrology. Although historians debate the nature of Reagan’s personal faith, they concur that he used religious rhetoric, discussed religious themes, and spoke to religious groups more than any other 20th-century president. Religion played a very important role in Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign. Reagan’s personal life was not a paragon of evangelical piety, but his worldview was strongly shaped by his understanding of biblical teaching. His faith affected many of his policies, most notably his endeavors to curb abortion, pass a school prayer amendment, secure tuition tax credits, and oppose communism.

Like Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy attended church regularly while president and used religious rhetoric extensively in his speeches, especially in discussing his campaign for world peace. Eisenhower, however, provided strong governmental support for the Judeo-Christian tradition, whereas Kennedy maintained a much stricter separation between church and state. The Democrat’s vitality, idealism, powerful rhetoric, and charisma inspired many younger Americans to social activism. Kennedy’s faith is difficult to analyze. As the nation’s only Catholic president, whose religious affiliation was a major issue in the 1960 election, he is central to an examination of religion and the presidency. Moreover, his assassination and funeral evoked a torrent of religious language, analysis, and emotion and reinforced the importance of civil religion in American society. On the other hand, his faith had much less influence on his thinking and policies than that of the other presidents analyzed in this book. In addition, beneath his exuberant, commanding public persona were private vices that contradicted his Catholic faith. Given Kennedy’s pragmatic style of governing, perspective toward Catholicism, and lack of a coherent philosophy, there does not seem to be much relationship between his policies and his faith. Nevertheless, he did present moral rationales for his stances on numerous issues, including education, juvenile delinquency, women’s rights, world hunger, poverty, and the Alliance for Progress. To assess Kennedy’s approach, three issues are examined: the Peace Corps, civil rights, and the limited test ban treaty. The most intense religious controversy during Kennedy’s tenure was provoked by the 1962 Supreme Court case that ruled that school-sponsored prayers as part of a regularly scheduled devotional exercise violated the Constitution.

The failure of conservative Protestants to prevent a Catholic, John F. Kennedy, from becoming president made them realize that they were political outsiders who were losing their battle for a Christian America. Yet rather than retreat, they renewed their political fight and formed alliances with other opponents of Kennedy in the emerging conservative movement. Supreme Court rulings against public school prayer and Bible reading in Engel v. Vitale and Abington v. Schempp further confirmed for conservative Protestants that the federal government was opposed to their interests. Initially, some evangelicals supported the Supreme Court decisions, because they believed that the Court rulings would counteract Catholic efforts to obtain federal funding for parochial schools, but by the end of Kennedy’s presidency, many evangelicals had decided that secularism posed a greater danger to the nation than Catholicism.

Ronald Reagan gave the Christian Right rhetorical support during his presidential campaigns and time in office, and he invited evangelical leaders such as Jerry Falwell and James Dobson to the White House, but he was unable to give the movement the legislation on school prayer and abortion that it wanted. The attention that Reagan gave the Christian Right increased the movement’s influence and solidified its ties to the Republican Party, but their lack of substantive legislative gains frustrated evangelical leaders. Christian Right leaders such as Falwell never wavered in their admiration for Reagan, and they supported his defense and fiscal policies, but they also wanted a leader who could deliver on their signature issues. By the end of Reagan’s presidency, the Christian Right had become more vocal in its opposition to abortion, more militant in its politics, and more determined than ever to recapture the country.

This chapter looks at moral issues that attracted the attention of right-wing women during the 1950s to early 1970s. The women actively campaigned against sex education in schools, while pushing for a Constitutional amendment to restore prayer to public schools. Many of the women believed that the Supreme Court’s decision that banned prayer in public schools was directly related to a decline in moral values among America’s youth. The chapter also looks at how rightist women defined patriotism, and examines their complaints that Americans, youth in particular, were unpatriotic. Some baby boomers’ thoughts on moral issues and also included in the chapter.

This chapter focuses on the fourth and final religious signal: engaging in morality politics. Morality politics is an approach that elevates political issues into symbolic, moral battles. The evidence in this chapter comes from Republican and Democratic party platforms since 1932. It considers five issues central to religious conservatives' political engagement: abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, same-sex relationships, school prayer, and stem-cell research. Analyzing platforms language shows that since 1980 Republicans have increasingly aligned their issue positions with those of religious conservatives, while Democrats have done the opposite. Further, Republicans have elevated the importance of these issues by attacking the courts and calling for constitutional amendments, while also grounding their claims in the language of faith and family. The chapter concludes with an analysis of three Justice Sunday events, which showcase morality politics in its most overt form.

This chapter examines the background to and the holdings in the two seminal cases involving prayer and Bible reading in the public schools: Engel v. Vitale and Abington Township v. Schempp. It discusses how the justices were cognizant of the potential reaction to the holdings and sought to mollify that response by using particular language in their opinions. It then examines the public reaction to the decisions that precipitated a split among Protestants over church–state separation. Finally, the chapter considers the congressional efforts to amend the Constitution to permit prayer and Bible reading in the public schools.

This chapter provides an in-depth examination of how religion has acted as an extremely conservative device in the South, helping push the region from fealty to the Democratic Party to the GOP. It addresses such hot-button issues as school prayer, public religious displays like the Ten Commandments, gay and lesbian rights, war, honor, terror, abortion, traditional and family values, “cultural defense,” and the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. The chapter argues for southern distinctiveness. And it catalogues the roles of important Religious Right groups such as Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition, the Moral Majority, Coral Ridge Ministries, and of individuals such as George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Strom Thurmond, and Jesse Helms.

Over the last few decades, there have been three competing views of the meaning of the Establishment Clause held by members of the Supreme Court. One, favored by the liberal justices, is that the Establishment Clause should be understood as creating a wall separating church and state. An alternative view, favored by the conservative justices, is that there should be “accommodation” between religion and government. Under this view, the government violates the Establishment Clause only if it creates a church, coerces religious participation, or discriminates among religions in giving financial benefits. A third position is that the government acts unconstitutionally if it endorses religion or a specific religion. The chapter argues that separation is the best view of the Establishment Clause and applies this to prayers at government activities, religious symbols on government property, and government aid to religious institutions.

With two court cases in 1962 and 1963, Engel v. Vitale and Abington School District v. Schempp, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional school prayer and Bible reading in the nation’s public classrooms, surprising nearly all Americans and outraging conservative Catholics, Mormons, and evangelicals. But as Congress tried to pass a constitutional amendment restoring school prayer, religious conservatives lessened their support, realizing the complicated nature of a federally backed prayer that would have to please all Americans. At the same time, the “God is Dead” theology erupted in liberal Protestant circles, drawing vociferous responses from conservative Christians. Rather than seeing themselves as allies against 1960s liberalism and secularism, evangelicals, Mormons, and Catholics used the death-of-God controversy to assert their singular messages of truth and salvation. As the LDS Church expanded, a robust campaign of anti-Mormonism formed to educate evangelicals about the dangerous “cult” in their midst.

With Ronald Reagan in the White House, religious conservatives expected the president to deliver on his promises regarding abortion, school prayer, and other cherished causes. But the White House did not address the political goals of the Religious Right, and religious conservatives divided over legislative policies and strategies. A brutal battle over two competing anti-abortion bills exposed the divisions within the movement, dooming a pro-life victory. School prayer failed partly from disinterest by Catholics and Mormons, but also because of disagreements between evangelicals and fundamentalists. Other issues, particularly debates over capitalism and national defense, demonstrated the diverse and often conflicting politics among religious conservatives. Reagan’s restoring diplomatic relations with the Vatican angered many evangelicals. His proclaiming 1983 the “Year of the Bible,” however, united evangelicals with other religious groups in promoting the scriptures throughout the nation, but evangelicals ultimately turned the movement into a proselytizing cause for the evangelical message.

This chapter discusses the protection of religious freedom in education, in both state and private schooling. As an important aspect of human societies, education about religion obviously features in the educational curriculum. More contentious, however, is the question of whether schools should themselves foster or permit opportunities for religious practice. Less obviously, but no less contentious, are issues concerning the content of the ‘secular’ curriculum in areas such as science or sex education. The material taught may sometimes conflict with the religious beliefs of a pupil or her parents. The chapter begins, however, with an issue that is fundamental to understanding the ongoing controversies surrounding all these questions — the differing understandings of liberal theorists and Christians of the very purpose of education.

For the past century, the overwhelming majority of American children have been educated outside of their homes in public or private “regular” school—state-accredited institutions staffed by educators with formal training. During the middle part of the twentieth century, homeschooling remained a novelty. Challenges to this dogma emerged in the decades after World War II. Following the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), many whites were aghast that the courts would mandate an end to school segregation and enforce measures meant to guarantee integration, such as busing. Many Christians protested measures that ended religious practices such as prayer in school. As Americans increasingly put their children into religious private schools, debates over state regulation of these schools exploded. Leftist education activists opened Free Schools to provide quality education to children underserved by the public school system. Dissatisfaction with schools on both the right and left contributed to a growing—if still fringe—homeschooling movement. The chapter closes with a summary of the struggle for legal recognition of and protections for homeschooling.

This chapter focuses on cases involving First Amendment, abortion rights, and employment discrimination cases that came before the Middle District of Florida from 1992 to 2000. School prayer is chronicled and analysed. Numerous cases involving the right to abortion are included, especially litigation involving controversial abortion doctor James Scott Pendergraft. A number of important employment discrimination cases such as plaintiff actions against Publix Supermarkets, Winn-Dixie, and Florida Progress are discussed. Next the chapter turns to desegregation litigation from the 1990s to the present. As of 1990 Duval, Hillsborough, Marion, Lee, Polk, Pinellas, and Orange counties were still under court supervision. Various rulings by Middle District judges pushed these counties closer and closer toward unitary status. The chapter discussed the litigation in those counties and concludes with the Duval, Hillsborough, Orange, and Marion school districts achieving unitary status.

George H. W. Bush was raised in a devout Episcopalian family and remained affiliated with this denomination for almost all his life. However, Bush’s theology and social policies had more in common with evangelicals than with more liberal Protestants. Bush’s faith was very important to him and helped shape a number of his presidential policies. He continually exhorted Americans to seek God’s aid to deal with the nation’s challenges and problems. No other chief executive argued as often as Bush that the United States was “one nation under God” and was accountable to Him. Bush frequently accentuated faith, morality, service, and family values. He maintained generally cordial relations with many leading evangelicals by supporting the sanctity of life, voluntary school prayer, religiously based child care, and parental control of education. Bush’s faith substantially influenced his policy in the Persian Gulf in 1990 and 1991, most notably Operation Desert Storm’s liberation of Kuwait.

As WRAL-TV’s vice president for programming, news, and public affairs, Helms’s intentions were twofold. First, he wanted WRAL-TV to establish a conservative alternative in order to win converts to conservatism, and that meant tearing down liberalism and the Democratic Party. Second, he wanted to elect conservatives. This, Helms expected, meant realignment of eastern North Carolina and the rest of the white South with the GOP. He believed the key to both objectives was winning over the voters of eastern North Carolina and voters like them throughout the South. Editorializing on WRAL’s daily newscasts afforded him something the Bankers Association could not—a broad audience in eastern North Carolina. Pious incitement’s exaggeration, embellishment, and outrage made good television. Helms blamed Democrats for the tumult of the civil rights movement, politicized the Supreme Court rulings on school-led prayer, and made voters fear their government. Helms pushed his reporters to present the civil rights movement in a negative light, to question the National Council of Churches, to criticize moderate Democrats like Governor Terry Sanford, and to give positive coverage to movement conservatives like Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley.

This epilogue considers Helms’s place in the conservative movement and the rise of the New Right during the 1970s and President Ronald Reagan’s first term. Mastering the chamber’s complex rules, he adapted pious incitement to the Senate. Helms raised issues many believed settled: abortion, school prayer, détente, and the Panama Canal. Helms’s purpose, which he never lost sight of, was to build the conservative movement. The issues he championed were critical in conservative fund-raising and campaigning. He played a crucial role in the formation of the New Right network. Helms built the National Congressional Club, which raised money, elected conservatives, and helped establish other New Right organizations. Helms’s organization provided Ronald Reagan with critical funding and advice in the 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns. Helms won reelection in 1978 while helping other conservative Republicans win election in 1978 and 1980. These conservative victories shifted the U.S. political center to the right, achieving the transformation of national politics that Helms had coveted since the 1950s. Helms faced his closest electoral contest in the 1984 senatorial race against Governor Jim Hunt. The Helms campaign beat Hunt with a negative television ad campaign of unprecedented intensity and duration.