Nation Under God?: The ACLU and Religion in American Politics

By Thomas L. Krannawitter and Daniel C. Palm

Book Overview

A Nation Under God? raises the question of why the ACLU relentlessly attacks public expressions of mainstream religious faith. The answer, according to the book's argument, is that the work of the ACLU is informed by a larger political project-modern liberalism-to transform American government and society into an administrative-welfare state. Modern liberalism requires two decisive changes in American politics if it is to be successful: First, the government of limited powers mandated by the Constitution must become a government of unlimited powers and scope. Second, free, self-reliant, and independent citizens must become dependent on and understand themselves as subservient to government. The ACLU's drive to remove religion and morality from the public square advances both goals. Limited, constitutional government rests on the idea that rights come from God; the power of government should be limited commensurate to the limited purpose of legitimate government: to protect our natural, God-given rights. With God removed from the public square, it becomes much easier politically to argue that government is the source of rights, and that every expansion of government power is tantamount to an expansion of rights. Further, self-reliant citizens are not in need of and are unlikely to support large government welfare programs. But self-reliancy is largely a function of self-control and moral responsibility. Immoral and irresponsible citizens are incapable of providing for themselves and their families. Driving God and morality out of the public square serves to break down public morality, which in turn creates classes of citizens who are dependent on government assistance and regulation. Through endless litigation against public expressions of religion and morality and its distorted interpretations of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses, the ACLU reveals its real agenda and its real allegiance, which is not to the Constitution or Bill of Rights, but to a radical liberal ideology that seeks nothing less than the remaking of American government and society. This book is published in cooperation with The Claremont Institute.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0742550885
• ISBN13: 9780742550889
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Ideas have consequences!

Dr. Dan Palm, Chair of the History and Political Science Department at Azusa Pacific University, and Dr. Thomas Krannawitter from Hillsdale College in Michigan, write on the history of ideas behind the American Civil Liberties Union, the federal Courts, and the conflicting ways America has come to understand itself in the Twentieth Century. _A Nation Under God?_ argues that, from its founding in the 1900's, the ACLU's primarily motivation has been derived from modern progressivism - a philosophy that denies the possibility human nature for the sake of remaking society in terms of participatory evolution enforced by a powerful administrative state. Though often appearing in the guise of democracy and individual rights, progressivism rejected what the American Founders knew to be the basis of liberty, rooted in self-evident truths of human equality and eternal God-given rights, as stated in the Declaration of Independence. Far from establishing a "Christian nation" - as indeed many Right-wing factions claim - Palm and Krannawitter show how the Founders merely intended to provide a general basis for the cultivation of the virtues needed to maintain a constitutional democracy. The First Amendment's Establishment Clause only forbids a national denomination; it is of course coupled with the protection of Free Exercise. Yet the Supreme Court's reading of the First Amendment has brought these two clauses into collision, giving way to rulings that are no longer based on principle - thus giving the ACLU very arbitrary power in shaping national life. The authors call on us as citizens to realize the contingency of these judge-made laws, and rethink the character of our regime in light of the "laws of nature and nature's God."