Religion and the American Presidency

Series Foreword
Acknowledgments
Contents
Editors and Contributors
About the Editors
Contributors
1 Introduction: The Importance of Religion to Understanding the Presidency
	A Wall of Separation?
	Religion and Presidential Campaigns
	Presidential Policy Agendas and Religion
	Notes
2 The Faith of George Washington
	Notes
3 Thomas Jefferson and the Myth of Separation
	The Campaign of 1800
	Jefferson’s Presidential Rhetoric
	Public Policy
	Notes
4 Religion in the Life, Thought, and Presidency of James Madison
	Religion in Madison’s Life and Thought
		Madison’s Religious Beliefs
		Madison’s Theology of Religious Freedom
	Madison’s View of the Role of Religion in American Public Life
		Madison’s Criticism of Government Support of Religion
		Religion and Madison’s Presidencies
	Conclusion
	Notes
5 Lincoln’s Political Religion and Religious Politics: Or, What Lincoln Teaches Us About the Proper Connection Between Religion and Politics
	Notes
6 “We Must Put on the Armor of God”: Harry Truman and the Cold War
	Truman, Faith, and Religion
	Faith, Freedom, and the Cold War
	Faith, Freedom, and Palestine
	Faith, Freedom, and Peace
	Notes
7 Dwight D. Eisenhower: Civil Religion and the Cold War
	Notes
8 Secular Icon or Catholic Hero?: Religion and the Presidency of John F. Kennedy
	Secular Icon?
	Catholic Hero?
	The Kennedy Presidency
	The Verdict
	Notes
9 Jimmy Carter and the Politics of Faith
	Introduction
	Religious Background
	Religion and the 1976 Campaign
	Carter as Religious National Leader
	Religion and Policy
	Conclusion
	Notes
10 Ronald Reagan’s Faith and Attack on Soviet Communism
	Church Attendance
	Nelle and that Printer of Udell’s
	Practical Christianity and the Cold War
	The President Versus the USSR
	Conclusion
	Notes
11 The Religion of Bill Clinton
	Bill Clinton’s Religion: An Apparent Paradox
	Religion in Clinton’s Childhood
	From High School to the Statehouse
	Religion in the White House
		Religion in the First Clinton Administration
		Religion in the Second Clinton Administration
	Conclusions
		A Sham Religion?
		American Civil Religion?
		A Religion of Second Chances?
	Notes
	References
12 The Faith of George W. Bush: The Personal, Practical, and Political
	Presidential Advisers
	Certitude
	Honesty
	Policy
	Sexuality, Reproduction, and Life Issues
	Economics
	War
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Works Cited
13 President Barack Obama and His Faith
	Introduction
	The 2004 Backdrop of the God Gap and the “Values Voter”
	Obama’s Religious Heritage and Early Influences
	Entering the National Stage: The Keynote Address at the Democratic National Convention
	Obama’s “Kennedy Moment”: The 2006 Call to Renewal Address
	Obama and Religion on the Campaign Trail in 2008
	Missteps and Controversies Around Obama’s Religion
	Misperceptions About Identity, Challenges with Identification: Obama’s Faith in Question
	Obama and America’s New Civil Religion
	Amazing Grace
	Notes
14 Religion and the Presidency of Donald J. Trump
	Born into Billy Graham’s America
	Coming of Age with Norman Vincent Peale’s Positive Thinking
	Appropriating Peale’s Positive Thinking Concept
	Finding a Personal Pastor in Paula White
	Courting Evangelicals, Catholics, and Jews
	“Sealing the Deal” With Evangelicals
	Persuading Catholics and Hispanics
	Rewarding the “Court Evangelicals”
	Strengthening the “Special Relationship”
	Sending Mixed Messages to the Muslim World
	Defending Israel’s Right to Jerusalem
	Pleasing Religious Conservatives with Executive Appointments
	Changing Religious Norms
	Notes
15 Joe Biden: America’s Second Catholic President
	Joe Biden’s Youth and the Catholic Church, 1942–1966
	Catholicism and Biden’s Personal and Professional Challenges, 1966–1974
	Biden’s Navigation of the Abortion Issue During the 1970s and 1980s
	A Catholic in the White House, Again? 1988–2008
	Biomedical Ethics and Gay Marriage in the Obama–Biden Administration, 2009–2017
	Civil Religion in the 2020 Campaign
	President Biden and Pope Francis: The Best-Known Catholics in the World
	Biden and the Catholic Church in the Twenty-First-Century United States
	Notes
Index