Christian America: An Invention of the Modern Era

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Corporate America and Christian America
Kevin M. Kruse’s book One Nation Under God theorizes that the idea of Christian America is an invention by corporate leaders against Frederick Roosevelt’s New Deal. The writer argues that the notion that America was founded on a biblical perspective and has been formally a Christian nation began in the 1930s after several conglomerates hired religious activists to fight against the New Deal. Even though most Americans supported Roosevelt's New Deal, it alienated industrialists and business lobbies by regulating businesses and giving labor unions significant bargaining power. Given the widespread support for the program, prominent corporate leaders could not make a direct case for free enterprise without the public opposing their obvious corporate agenda. Conservative ministers were the most trusted figures in America, and corporate leaders realized that their position made them the best change agents against the New Deal. Therefore, some of the giant corporations in America at the time bankrolled members of the clergy to preach free enterprise under the guise of faith and freedom.
The hired ministers made the case against the New Deal by arguing that Christianity and capitalism were distinctively similar in that people rise and fall depending on their own merits. The rich are fortunate because they are good in business in much the same way Christians go to heaven. After all, they are good. They, therefore, argued that the New Deal violated the natural order of things and that state regulation was contrary to the Ten Commandments. The conservative clergy argue...