I’m a Christian, You’re a Christian, We’re All Christians

ED: You know, Brian, listening that interview with Grant Wacker brings back pretty personal memories of mine. I was raised as a Southern Baptist in Tennessee, and one of the times that my family would come together, which is not all that often, was in front of television whenever Billy Graham would have his crusade on TV. And it would preempt whatever was on TV to watch this. And we would all five watch hundreds of people stream down at Graham’s call, at the end of his powerful sermon, for people to renew their relationship with Jesus Christ.

And I remember sitting in that living room and feeling part of something really big, and feeling that there was nothing else that was really that same sense of solidarity, except we were gathered around the same television and watched the moonshots. You know, watch this space shots. And the sense that, OK, we are a united people. These were the same ’60s where a lot of other things were kind of falling apart. But in those moments, it felt like there was some kind of cohesion to American culture and our place in the world.

BRIAN: Well, Ed, you’ll be shocked to hear that as a Jewish family growing up in South Florida, we didn’t sit around and watch Billy Graham. But, Ed, my memories of the exact same period, even though you are a few months older than I am, was of coming together, as a family, at the University of Miami football games. And my dad would focus intently on one, and only one, thing. Which was, would the minister, who delivered invocation before the national anthem, would he invoke Jesus Christ or not. And if invoked Jesus Christ, my dad was out of there. He literally left for about five minutes, muttering things I can’t repeat on the radio.

But what’s really interesting is that presidents used Billy Graham to kind of triangulate between Protestant, evangelical true believers on the one hand, and, let’s say, Jewish families like mine, that were very, very eager to assimilate into what became known as a civil religion. A religion that was non-denominational, that was open to Christians, and Jews, and in theory, even Muslims, although that they were not talked about all that much in that period.

And what that really underscores is the very delicate line that presidents had to walk. They needed their spiritual advisers, and Billy Graham was first among all of them. But they also had to demonstrate that they could be a president for all denominations and religions. That they could bring us all together, under God, one nation under God, against this common godless enemy, the Soviet Union.

Peter, I’m curious to know what Thomas Jefferson, who in many ways was all about creating a civil religion, what Thomas Jefferson would think of where we are today.

PETER: Well, Brian, Jefferson very much would have endorsed the notion of a big tent religiosity. And even Billy Graham’s revivals that Ed remembers nostalgically, they were inviting. They were not divisive. You just come forward and be part of this great group, and Brian, you’re welcome, too, OK? And even decadent Unitarians such as myself.

But that’s changed now. And I think that’s a remarkable thing, because civil religion– that notion that we had a God, nature’s God, whatever you want to call the kind of God that Abraham Lincoln invoked, the God of manifest destiny, the God on our coinage, that God that we pledge allegiance to– well, we’re not there anymore. And I think some of the anger and rage you feel from advocates of Christian America is a sense that moment has passed. And now, instead of bringing people together, religious faith is, as it has historically been in Western civilization, a great fracture in the body politic.

ED: Yes. You know, pulling the camera back like this reminds us at the moment of Billy Graham was actually the great anomaly in American history. I don’t think there was a time, any other time. In the 19th century, people imagined that the America was more unified, more religious, more Christian. It really wasn’t in the way that we saw in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s.

[MUSIC – JACK DUPREE, “GOD BLESS OUR NEW PRESIDENT”]

PETER: That’s going to do it for today, but you can join us online and let us know what you thought about today’s show. And while you’re there, ask us questions about our upcoming episodes. We’ve got a show about the history of manufacturing, a Halloween special about the history of horror, and be sure to send us your favorite presidential debate moments for a history of debating. You’ll find it all at backstoryradio.org, or send email to back backstory@virginia.edu. We’re also on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter @backstoryradio. Whatever you do, don’t be a stranger.

BRIAN: This episode of BackStory was produced by Andrew Parsons, Bridget McCarthy, Nina Ernest, Emily Gadek, and Ramona Martinez. Jamal Milner is our Technical Director. Diana Williams is our Digital Editor, and Melissa Gismondi is our Researcher.

With help from [? Sequoyah ?] [? Carrillo ?], Emma Greg, Aidan Lee, Liz [? Macaulay ?], and [? Payton ?] Wall. Backstory is produced at the Virginia Foundation for Humanities. Major support is provided by the Shiocan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, and The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. Additional support is provided by the Tomato Fund, cultivating fresh ideas in the arts, the humantiies, and the environment, and by History Channel– history made every day.

FEMALE SPEAKER: Brian Balogh is Professor of History at the University of Virginia and the Dorothy Compton professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs. Peter Onuf is Professor of History Emeritus at UVA and senior research fellow at Monte Cello. Ed Ayers is Professor of the Humanities and President Emeritus at the University of Richmond. BackStory was created by Andrew Wyndham for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

MALE SPEAKER: BackStory is distributed by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.