Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American by Gary Scott Smith

By Gary Scott Smith

In his hugely praised e-book Faith and the Presidency, Gary Scott Smith forged a revealing gentle at the position faith has performed in presidential politics all through our nation's historical past, providing finished, even-handed examinations of the position of faith within the lives, politics, and regulations of 11 presidents.

Now, in Religion within the Oval Office, Smith takes on 11 extra of our nation's finest and influential leader executives: John Adams, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William McKinley, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, invoice Clinton, and Barack Obama. Drawing on a variety of assets and paying shut recognition to ancient context and America's transferring social and ethical values, he examines their spiritual ideals, commitments, affiliations, and practices and scrutinizes their relationships with non secular leaders and groups. the result's a desirable account of the ways that faith has assisted in shaping the process our background. From John Quincy Adams' remedy of local americans, to Harry Truman's selection to acknowledge Israel, to invoice Clinton's merchandising of spiritual liberty and welfare reform, to Barack Obama's rules on poverty and homosexual rights, Smith indicates how strongly our presidents' spiritual commitments have affected coverage from the earliest days of our country to the current.

Together with Faith and the Presidency, Religion within the Oval Office offers the main accomplished exam of the inseparable and interesting courting among religion and the yankee presidency. This publication may be helpful to an individual attracted to the presidency and the position of faith in politics.

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264 Led by Timothy Dwight, the president of Yale College and a Congregationalist pastor, many clergy urged Christians to impose their own religious test on the candidates and vote for Adams. 267 While Congregationalists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians, who saw their religious tenets and practices as under assault by forces of Enlightenment Deism and secularism, on one side, and religious enthusiasm, on the other, tended to support Adams as the bulwark of conventional religion, tradition, and social and political order.

This radical “arch priest of Jacobinism and infidelity” would destroy the nation by putting the interests of revolutionary France ahead of those of the United States. John Adams 37 France’s civil chaos demonstrated the horrific consequences of rejecting Christianity. ”264 Led by Timothy Dwight, the president of Yale College and a Congregationalist pastor, many clergy urged Christians to impose their own religious test on the candidates and vote for Adams. 267 While Congregationalists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians, who saw their religious tenets and practices as under assault by forces of Enlightenment Deism and secularism, on one side, and religious enthusiasm, on the other, tended to support Adams as the bulwark of conventional religion, tradition, and social and political order.

42 Dozens of her letters testify to her devout faith. 46 While living in both New York and Philadelphia, Abigail had trouble finding preaching she enjoyed. 47 Shortly before her death, she told her son John Quincy that she had become a Unitarian in the way that William Ellery Channing employed the term. ”48 John and Abigail enjoyed a long, happy, and mutually enriching marriage. Their shared faith helped them nurture their children, cope with many challenges, and support one another in trying times.

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