11 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
11 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
<p class="deck">The origins of the "under God" terms in The Pledge of Allegiance</p>
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<p class="text">One Nation Under Graham</p>
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<p class="text">America, not unlike many countries shaped by biblical religion – from Israel to Ireland, has a history of politicians and preachers making abundant use of apocalyptic rhetoric. More than a decade ago Charles Mathewes and Christopher McKnight (no relation) put together a string of exceptional essays on various periods in American history illustrating this abundance. Their book, with the oddly misspelled title, is called <em><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/3lyJsjS" class="">Prophesies of Godlessness</a></strong></em> (which is a noun in their writing – it’s a verb with that “s” – never mind). It should be read by anyone who studies political rhetoric making use of apocalyptic, which unfortunately a recent book didn’t.</p>
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<p class="text">The book that didn’t is by Jonathan D. Redding, called <em><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/2YHcS63" class="">One Nation Under Graham: Apocalyptic Rhetoric and American Exceptionalism</a></strong></em>. Redding’s book is a slice of American history. The slice is Billy Graham in several respects: his apocalyptic rhetoric, which is as American and Graham as it gets; his American exceptionalism if not patriotic nationalism; his anti-communism; his relation to presidents (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump); and especially Graham’s advocacy for “under God” being added in 1954 (under Eisenhower) to the Pledge of Allegiance. The decisive sermon was by George Docherty, but he was rooting his sermon and style at the time in Billy Graham’s anti-communism American exceptionalism that could only stave off communism if Americans would be born again, get right with God, and commit to being a God-honoring Christian nation.</p>
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<blockquote class="text">Scot McKnight is the author of a recent book called “To You All ...</blockquote><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/scot-mcknight/2021/october/one-nation-under-graham.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
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<p><br /><a href="https://rss.beaconads.com/click.php?z=1289806&k=c779018782158d93282944b4f7dd4d03&a=190300&c=92033608" target="_blank"><img src="https://rss.beaconads.com/img.php?z=1289806&k=c779018782158d93282944b4f7dd4d03&a=190300&c=92033608" border="0" alt="" /></a></p>
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