A More Abundant Life

FDR, The New Deal, and the Civil Religion

Jonathan Slonim

History of the American Identity

Dr. Richard M. Gamble

March 22, 2013

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This Nation is not merely a Nation of independence, but it is, if we are to survive, bound to be a Nation of interdependence--town and city, and North and South, East and West. That is our goal, and that goal will be understood by the people of this country no matter where they live.1

Franklin Delano Roosevelt began his first presidential campaign with

these words in 1932 as he accepted the Democratic nomination. He would

spend many of his future speeches as President seeking to bind the

American people together. Like Woodrow Wilson and others before him, FDR

turned to the civil religion to create a common religious foundation for

America. He went beyond his predecessors, however, by making the New

Deal economic policies a moral issue. The New Deal has been characterized

as essentially economics- and utility-focused.2 While there is no doubt that a

strong managerial spirit ran through the policies of the time, Roosevelt's

rhetoric cast them in an unequivocally moral light. Though the 32nd

President's personal faith was far from orthodox, Burns writes that "Probably

no American politician has given so many speeches that were essentially

sermons rather than statements of policy".3 What then, was the religion to

which Roosevelt called America? A careful reading of his speeches--

particularly his inaugural addresses--suggests that the god whom FDR

invoked was only nominally Christian. While this in itself is not unique, since

1 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago," July 2, 1932. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu

2 Ronald Isetti, “Moneychangers of the Temple: FDR, American Civil Religion, and the New Deal,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol 26. No. 3 (Summer 1996): 678.

3 James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and The Fox (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Company, 1956), 476.

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deists and unorthodox Christians have a long history in American politics,

Roosevelt intensified the American civil religion in the New Deal. The civil

religion had previously been largely Protestant.4 FDR brought a new level of

ecumenicism to the presidency and to the nation, seeking through his words

and actions to draw Americans together in a common religious pursuit. FDR

was the prophet, at times even the Christ, of this newly broadened civil

religion, and the New Deal was the sacred rite, the faithful practice of which

would finally achieve "peace on earth."

To understand the significance of FDR's political rhetoric, it is important

to first look at his personal beliefs. Born in 1882 in Hyde Park to Episcopalian

Vestryman James Roosevelt, Franklin grew up surrounded by high church

liturgy and scripture. His mother Sara had been Unitarian, but joined the

Episcopal church when she married James. Even more than his family,

Franklin's Groton headmaster, Endicott Peabody, had an enormous spiritual

influence on the young man, and young Roosevelt even played the organ in

worship services while at school.5 All of this religious training imparted

primarily moral teaching to Franklin. Peabody himself cared very little for

matters of doctrine. Rather, he taught the boys at his boarding school to

appreciate and follow the moral teachings of the Bible. Roosevelt greatly

appreciated this religious education, and wrote in a letter to Peabody, "I

4 Richard Pierard and Robert D. Linder, Civil Religion and the Presidency (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988), 171.

5 Gary Scott Smith, “Religion and the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” in Religion and the American Presidency, ed. Gastón Espinosa, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 186-189.

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count it among the blessings of my life that it was given me in formative

years to have the privilege of your guiding hand and benefit of your inspiring

example."6

As an adult, Roosevelt followed in his father's footsteps and became a

vestryman at St. James' Episcopal Church. Despite this, he rarely attended

church, and as president wrote that he preferred a "very low church" kind of

worship, such as the Methodists and Baptists practiced. His "was a very

simple religion. He believed in God and in His guidance," his wife Eleanore

wrote. When she asked him about the possibility that the teachings of the

church were not true, he answered, "I really never thought about it. I think it

is just as well not to think about things like that too much."7 This very loose

form of Christianity fit snugly in a nation that was losing much of its

Protestant heritage; but it still allowed him to call upon the religious

sensibilities of the nation without apparent hypocrisy.8 Another of Roosevelt's

practices that helped to keep him above the fray of denominational strife

was that he rarely mentioned his faith, even to his closest friends and family.

By keeping his personal beliefs to himself, he ensured that his convictions

would be less liable to blame or controversy.9 Thus particularly well-suited to

6 Pierard and Linder, Civil Religion, 164.

7 Ibid. 169-170.

8 Phillip E. Hammond, “In Search of a Protestant Twentieth Century: American Religion and Power Since 1900,” Review of Religious Research 24.4, (June 1983): 286. Hammond explains thoroughly in this essay that by 1920, America had lost most of its protestant identity. My argument is that Roosevelt took this opportunity to reorient the American civil religion.

9 Smith, “Religion and Roosevelt,” 190.

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the religious tenor of the times, Roosevelt was able to strengthen the civil

religion's hold on American thought and action.

The American civil religion was nothing new when Roosevelt became

president. Cynthia Toolin argues that it has been a substantial feature in

every presidential inaugural address since Washington's first. Citing Robert

Bellah, she says that "the presence of American civil religion, as found in the

presidential inaugural addresses, performs the three functions of culture

building, culture affirmation, and, most importantly, legitimation of

international and domestic actions."10 How then did Roosevelt's speeches

(inaugural or otherwise) go about building that religion, and toward what or

whom was it directed? A common theme in FDR's religious rhetoric was a

subtle transfer of meaning within biblical passages. Passages that referred

originally to Christ refer now to America, Democracy, or FDR himself. FDR

often prayed to God in contexts surrounding his speeches, especially his

inaugural addresses, but the god whom he references nearly every time he

quotes scripture refers to the United States of America, Democracy, or the

New Deal itself.

He began this trend before he even became President. In his first

nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in

1932, Roosevelt said, "many amongst us have made obeisance to Mammon .

. . To return to higher standards we must abandon the false prophets and

10 Cynthia Toolin, “American Civil Religion from 1789-1981: A Content Analysis of Presidential Inaugural Addresses,” Review of Religious Research, 25.1 (September 1983): 45.

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seek new leaders of our own choosing."11 Who are these false prophets of

Mammon? They are the Republican Party. But the clear biblical reference

here is Matthew 6:24: "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." There are two

options provided: God, or Mammon. By mentioning only Mammon, FDR

leaves another option. What or whom would he have us worship? The only

alternative we are given is found in the last line of the speech: "I pledge

myself to a new deal for the American People." This, he says, is not a political

campaign, but "a crusade to restore America to its own people." Even before

his election, and even in one of the more technical and economically-focused

speeches he would give, FDR used biblical references. And it was not the God

of the Bible to whom would have the people turn, but the New Deal.

Nothing changed on the first day of his presidency. The First Inaugural

explained that "We are stricken by no plague of locusts." Rather, the failure

of the economy was due to "practices of the unscrupulous money changers."

In other words, the economic woes were not a punishment but simply the

consequences of following the unscrupulous Republican policies. He won the

election, and at last, "The money changers have fled from their high seats in

the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient

truths." Here he equated his election with Jesus driving the money changers

out of the Temple of God. And if Jesus drove them out to restore the Temple

to worshiping God, what were the ancient truths that FDR called upon?

"Social values," he said, would restore the nation to its former glory, and he

11 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago," July 2, 1932.  The American Presidency Project..

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(or perhaps the united people), as Jesus, would lead that restoration. In the

succeeding paragraph, Roosevelt stated that "our true destiny is not to be

ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men." Once

again, he refers to himself and his listeners in a biblical reference to Jesus:

"The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give

his life a ransom for many."12 FDR concluded his Second Inaugural calling on

God to help him "give light to them that sit in darkness and to guide our feet

into the way of peace."13 These words, taken directly from Zachariah's prayer

over Jesus in Luke 1:79, once again transpose words from Jesus to Roosevelt

and the American people, continuing to secularize salvation. Isetti points out

this very phrase, writing, “By quoting from this prayer, the president was

able . . . to identify his administration with the peace and happiness of

messianic times.”1415 FDR put himself in the position of Jesus here and other

places through a careful use of pronouns in his Scripture references, making

himself and the New Deal the center of the civil religion. This positioning as a

successor of Christ would help to substantiate K.C. O'Leary's claim that the

New Deal was the enactment of Herbert Croly's cry for a strong central

12 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Inaugural Address," March 4, 1933. The American Presidency Project.

13 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Inaugural Address," January 20, 1937. The American Presidency Project.

14 Isetti, “Moneychangers,” 683.

15 Gary Smith refers to this same passage, but he misses the point entirely when he says that “the Prophet of Hyde Park [was] their latter-day Moses.” In other places, Roosevelt did refer to the Exodus, but this reference is very clearly to Christ (“Religion and the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt,” 193).

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government and the creation of a national community.16 Croly wrote in The

Promise of American Life that a national community would need "some

democratic evangelist,--some imitator of Jesus who will reveal to men the

path whereby they may enter into possession of their individual and social

achievements, and immeasurably increase them by virtue of personal

regeneration."17 Roosevelt filled this role in America, uniting the people

behind his leadership in the crusade for a better economic situation.

As President and leader of the civil religion, Roosevelt made a point to

include the clergy in much of his work. In the first year of his presidency

alone, he addressed the Hyde Park Methodist Episcopal Church, the Federal

Council of Churches of Christ in America, and the National Conference of

Catholic Churches. These addresses all shared a similar tone, asking the

churches to support the New Deal’s programs. In 1935, Roosevelt sent a

letter to about 200,000 clergy, asking them for their opinion on the New Deal

policies he had enacted. Again, he was seeking to gain church support,

though in a sense he was supplanting the role of provider to the poor that

churches had long held. Throughout his communication with churches and

other local bodies, Roosevelt walked a fine line between federalism and

nationalism. He said that "the Federal Government cannot, and does not

intend to, take over the whole job. Many times we have insisted that every 16 K. C. O'Leary, “Herbert Croly & Progressive Democracy.” Polity. 26.4, (1994): 533-552.

17 Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1914) 453-454. While FDR does not reference Croly directly, O’Leary and others have suggested that the New Deal, consciously or not, was the enactment of Croly’s philosophy. It is ultimately immaterial to my argument whether FDR consciously followed Croly, since this is an analysis of how his rhetoric shaped the civil religion. Croly’s words are merely evidence that the religious rhetoric FDR used was consistent with this idea of the civil religion.

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community and every State must first do its share."18 At the same time, the

Federal Government had "inaugurated new measures of relief on a vast

scale," and this was the proper work of an enlightened Federal Government.

The increased relief measures, combined with the language he used in

addressing churches, suggests that FDR was creating a national “church”

which would subsume all local and denominational differences.

In his letter to the clergy, FDR reiterated a point that he made over and

over throughout his speeches: The central government could not manage

communities by itself. It needed the support of local communities, churches,

and private organizations.19 This was similarly the theme of his speeches to

church groups. In speaking to the Hyde Park Methodist Episcopal Church,

asked, "Have the people in this community done their share?" This was not a

spiritual issue, but a very tangible question: had sufficient taxes been paid,

were there sufficient relief efforts in place for the poor? In short, he wanted

to know if the community had been able to solve its economic problems

through neighborly involvement. If that had been insufficient, he asked, then

had the state stepped in and done its share? Only at that point would relief

efforts by the Federal Government kick in.20

18 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Address to the National Conference of Catholic Charities.," October 4, 1933. The American Presidency Project..

19 Letter quoted in Monroe Billington and Cal Clark, “Clergy Opinion and the New Deal: The State of Washington as a Case Study,” The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 81.3 (July 1990): 96.

20 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Extemporaneous Address at the Hyde Park Methodist Episcopal Church," September 29, 1933. The American Presidency Project.

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"The churches are doing their share," he declared, assuring the

churches that the central government would be coming to the rescue.21

These speeches gave FDR and his New Deal a new and important role in the

religious life of America. The statement above implied that he had the

authority to put his stamp of approval on churches. Roosevelt chose to place

himself, as the head of a civil religion, above the churches. His letter to

clergy said, "We can solve our many problems, but no one man or single

group can do it,--we shall have to work together for the common end of

better spiritual and material conditions for the American people."22 While this

letter sounds in some ways like a humble request for advice, when combined

with his other speeches, it appears in a slightly different light. FDR sought to

unite all churches with a common goal: improvement of society. The final

lines of this speech read:

The problems which we all face—the problems of so-called economics, the problems that are called monetary problems, the problems of unemployment, the problems of industry and agriculture—we shall not succeed in solving unless the people of this country hold the spiritual values of the country just as high as they do the economic values.23

Roosevelt closed his speech to the Episcopalian Church by explaining

that the real problem facing America was spiritual. By casting the economic

struggles of the United States as spiritual, he sought to unite churches of all

denominations behind him in attacking the problems facing America. This

attempt was generally successful. The large majority of clergy supported

21 Ibid.

22 Billington and Clark, “Clergy Opinion,” 96.

23 Roosevelt, “Episcopal Address.”

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Roosevelt and the New Deal, though any given policy initiative of the New

Deal often met with substantial opposition.24 That clergy supported Roosevelt

so readily without supporting his specific policies suggests that he had

successfully united them around a spiritual vision that transcended practical

concerns.

In his speech to the Federal Council of Churches of Christ, FDR declared

the goal that he and the churches would pursue together. "That human

agency which we call government is seeking through social and economic

means the same goal which the churches are seeking through social and

spiritual means. . . 'a more abundant life.'"25 This is nearly a direct quote of

Jesus in John 10:10: "I am come that they might have life, and that they

might have it more abundantly."26 While he claims that the government is

seeking this goal through social and economic means, compared to the

social and spiritual means of the church, the distinction does not seem to

hold up in his rhetoric. If the New Deal is directed toward the same kind of

abundant life that Christ sought to give to humanity, then there is already no

meaningful distinction between "spiritual" and "economic." In his speech to

the Episcopalian Church, quoted above, he said that the economic problems

of America could not be solved except spiritually. While creating a nominal

24 Billington and Clark, “Clergy Opinion,” 97.

25 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Address before the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America," December 6, 1933. The American Presidency Project.

26 All Bible references are to the King James Version.

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barrier between church and state in this speech, FDR substantially united the

two through his rhetoric, placing himself at the head of a spiritual nation.

A religion cannot be simply positive; it must also fight against

something. Roosevelt recognized that, and told the Churches of Christ "The

early Christians challenged the pagan ethics of Greece and of Rome; we are

wholly ready to challenge the pagan ethics that are represented in many

phases of our boasted modern civilization." The Church of the New Deal

would have to contest as strongly with "pagan ethics" as the early Church

had with Greek and Roman culture. What were those pagan ethics? FDR

made no hesitation: they were the entrenched class distinctions, against

which "the early churches were united in a social ideal." By re-writing Church

history to be purely social, FDR made it possible for churches to join him as

supporters of his New Deal, not just politically, but spiritually as well. Lest

there be any concern about this, he assured them that Government and

church operate in completely separate spheres. However, "Government can

ask the churches to stress in their teaching the ideals of social justice, while

at the same time government guarantees to the churches--Gentile and

Jewish—the right to worship God in their own way." Only if they worked

together under Roosevelt's leadership could church and government

successfully solve the ills of the nation. But if they succeeded: "From the

bottom of my heart I believe that this beloved country of ours is entering

upon a time of great gain." Here again, he quoted the Bible, this time 1

Timothy 6:6: "But godliness with contentment is great gain." Support for the

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New Deal's social policies was equated with godliness, and "great gain" he

gave to mean economic prosperity. Turning to the Bible and transposing

select passages to refer to his policies, FDR called righteous churches to

follow him as their spiritual leader.

While neither the social gospel nor the use of the Bully Pulpit of the

presidency to preach it was new, FDR did bring a new degree of ecumenicism

to the civil religion. "The United States was no longer culturally a Protestant--

let alone evangelical--nation, but one in which all faiths were to have a

part."27 Cognizant that he needed the support of Catholics as well as

Protestants in his civil religion, he maintained extremely good relations with

Catholic leaders in America. In October of 1933, Roosevelt addressed the

Conference of Catholic Charities, encouraging them in the work they had

been doing. Because of the interest they had taken in serving the poor, he

believed that "God is marching on."28 Taking this quote from the "Battle

Hymn of the Republic" by Julia Ward Howe and applying it to Catholics was a

new thing. Never before had Catholicism been fully included under the

umbrella of the American civil religion--one which had been predominantly

Protestant. However, by accepting Catholic Americans as a part of the great

work of the New Deal, FDR both broadened his support base and set himself

up as the spiritual leader of all Americans, regardless of religious creed.

Theology didn’t matter as long as churches were doing the good work of the

New Deal.

27 Pierard and Linder, Civil Religion, 163.

28 Roosevelt, “Address to Catholic Charities.”

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In his speech to the Catholic Charities, the President reiterated the goal

to which church and state would aim, this time emphasizing a "spirit of

neighborliness." The citizens of the United States were to consider

themselves neighbors and "work together for the public welfare and for the

success of a broad national program of recovery." A broad national program

did not have to be impersonal, and if all Americans felt that they were

neighbors and part of the same congregation, they could work together and

succeed. To encourage his Catholic audience in this pursuit, Roosevelt

reminded them that "Men cannot live unto themselves alone,"29 nearly

quoting 2 Corinthians 5:15, which reads: "He died for all, that they which live

should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for

them, and rose again." The context of the speech suggests that this quote

was by no means coincidence. Rather, in a speech primarily about social

responsibility and private charity, FDR directed the spiritual aims of the

church toward national goals. Rather than living unto "him which died," his

audience was called to live in a "spirit of neighborliness." The neighborliness,

of course, was made possible through the machinations of the Federal

Government and by uniting with FDR, the great religious leader of the nation,

in his social policies. Again, the transposition of carefully chosen Scriptures

put the New Deal squarely in front of a national religion that would

supersede all denominational and theological bickering.

29 Ibid.

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At first glance, speeches like this one appear to contradict the common

notion that Roosevelt absorbed the roles of state, local, and private charity

into the Federal Government. "There are . . . vital reasons for the

maintenance of the efforts of the churches and other non-governmental

groups in every part of the land,"30 Roosevelt said. Government on a large

scale could not have the close contact with individuals necessary for

successful implementation of real social reform, nor could purely temporal

salves cure the problem. Churches, FDR explained, played a crucial and

irreplaceable role in the improvement of society toward "the greatest good

for the greatest number." 31 However, through utilitarian language such as

this, FDR again and again equated social, spiritual, and economic values. The

government might not, in theory, have the same spiritual capacity as the

churches, but his language united them in a National Church that essentially

did have that capacity. Thus he was able to sincerely say, "Not for a moment

have I doubted that we would climb out of the valley of gloom. Always I have

been certain that we would conquer, because the spirit of America springs

from faith—faith in the beloved institutions of our land, and a true and

abiding faith in the divine guidance of God." Church and state, united as one

spiritual institution, would fear no evil, because they could climb out of the

valley of gloom, as long as they maintained faith in institutions and in God.

The "beloved institutions" got much more emphasis than God in this and

other speeches. America, a church unto itself, could unite churches of every

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

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denomination--Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish--in the quest for "a more

abundant life."

It appears from the above evidence that FDR carefully crafted his

speeches to situate the New Deal at the center of the civil religion. It is easy

here to get carried away, but that alone does not explain all of the

president’s rhetoric. If Roosevelt saw himself as an "imitator of Jesus," and

the New Deal nearly as a god, what was the significance of the tremendous

pomp surrounding his inaugurations? His first address was preceded by a

special church service, led by his old mentor Endicott Peabody, as was each

successive inauguration. At his second ceremony, Roosevelt began the

tradition, imitated by every subsequent president, of having an invocation

read by one or more members of the clergy. This certainly shows the

importance that he placed on public religious observance, but it does not fit

neatly with an idea that Roosevelt instituted a new national religion around

the New Deal. A more benign and more significant theory is that Roosevelt

was not changing anything in the substance of the civil religion, but rather

making it more inclusive and then applying it directly to his times. This fits in

well with Martin Marty's and Phillip Hammond's argument that "From the

1880s to World War I the mainline Protestants saw much of their intellectual

leadership adopt various versions of the new theology and much of their

reformist passion shaped into a new social gospel."32 Christianity was already

a primarily social gospel, and the church was seeking to do its work in the

32 Hammond, “In Search,” 283.

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world through secular means and in conjunction with secular society.33 In this

milieu, Roosevelt recognized and seized an opportunity to unite American

church-goers, Protestant and Catholic, under a single social gospel message.

So he had two invocations at his Second Inaugural: one Protestant and one

Catholic. His relationship with churches was not limited to one denomination

or another, but sought to center both of them on the old social gospel newly

personified in the New Deal.

This theory is borne out in the rest of the inaugural addresses. In the

Second, Roosevelt reiterated his old theme of driving the moneychangers

from the temple, and laid out his plan for continuing the success of his first

administration. This concludes with an invocation of "Divine guidance" to

help FDR and his followers to "give light to them that sit in darkness and to

guide our feet into the way of peace."34 In the Third Inaugural, FDR quotes

"words of prophecy spoken by our first President." The words he quotes

about "the sacred fire of liberty" are the first instance of a president invoking

the civil religion in America. Toolin lists invocations of George Washington as

one of the hallmarks of the civil religion in America, and FDR's citing of the

first prophet of that civil religion fits in well with the traditional civic

religion.35

Not only was the newly specific civil religion prominent in FDR's

inaugural addresses, but it was also apparent in his everyday speeches. In

33 Ibid, 284.

34 Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Inaugural Address," 1937.

35 Toolin, “American Civil Religion,” 43.

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October of 1936 he gave a speech at Madison Square Gardens in which he

called "peace on earth, good will toward men" the message of democracy.

"Above our political forums [and] market places stand the altars of our faith--

altars on which burn the fires of devotion that maintain all that is best in us

and [in] our nation."36 He closed his speech with Micah 6:8: "What doth the

Lord require of thee--but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with

thy God." Just as in his inaugurals, in this speech FDR transposed the

messianic message to his ideology. Erecting an altar to democracy, he led

the country in devotion to a social ideal. This language was ubiquitous

throughout his presidency.

Perhaps the most significant part of this unifying civil religion is who

were left out. And they were many. In the 1932 campaign, it was President

Hoover and the Republicans. In the First and Second Inaugurals it was the

bankers, the rich, and the greedy. By his third election campaign in 1940, evil

was beginning to become an outside force, but there were many Americans

who, because of their lack of faith, would be termed outsiders. Religion is not

just about good. It is a story of good versus evil, and without an evil to fight

it would be very hard to hold a religious group together for long. Throughout

his presidency, FDR crafted a narrative of the civil religion in which there was

no room for dissent.

The Hoover Republicans were his first target. In a campaign speech

about prohibition, he pulled out all the stops:

36  Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Address at Madison Square Garden, New York City," October 31, 1936. The American Presidency Project.

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In June, the Republican Oracle sat in Chicago. There was a fume of heated oratory; clouds of Prohibition proposals were emitted; the Resolutions Committee and the Convention itself succumbed to the stupefying influence. It uttered words in the party platform — words and more words, till meaning was lost and reason slumbered. And then when the Convention ended and the people asked the high priests of the party what it all meant, the answers were so diverse that one was tempted to suspect the worst — that it meant nothing at all.37

He compared the Republicans to the pagan oracle at Delphi. They were

not just wrong--they were evil. And because of their pagan politics, they were

also not American. "Public opinion, moved by a true American admiration for

brave and honest statement . . . liked the Democratic platform . . . This must

have been disturbing to the high priests of the Republican Party." Over and

over in this speech he used the phrase "true American." If you were not with

FDR, you were against FDR, and you could not be a true American. Members

of the Republican Party, because of their political shenanigans, were not

allowed into the American civil religion--into the temple of democracy. He

lumped them with the outsiders.

"Outsider" garnered an entirely new meaning with the outbreak of

World War II. While it was still just a European war, Roosevelt made it clear

that he would do whatever it took to keep foreign powers out of the

"Republics in which [we] live and move and have [our] being."38 The

"democratic faith" would keep pressing onward and upward, and would

37 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Campaign Address on Prohibition in Sea Girt, New Jersey," August 27, 1932. The American Presidency Project.

38 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Address on Hemisphere Defense, Dayton, Ohio.," October 12, 1940,The American Presidency Project.

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defend itself against any outsiders. Like Paul in Athens, he made it clear that

American democracy is the true religion that the rest of the world was still

looking for. But he also made it clear that not everyone in America was

American. In November of 1940 he said, "There are certain forces within our

own national community, composed of men who call themselves American

but who would destroy America. . .In this election all the representatives of

those forces, without exception, are voting against the New Deal."39 If the

people had any doubt as to what constituted true Americanism, FDR would

explain to them that the New Deal would be the line of demarcation.

By making the New Deal the central symbol of the civil religion, FDR

cast his political opponents as godless pagans and as enemies of America. In

a fireside chat, the president put the finishing touches on his

"moneychangers in the temple" theme: "How are we constructing the edifice

of recovery—the temple which, when completed, will no longer be a temple

of money changers or of beggars, but rather a temple dedicated to and

maintained for a greater social justice, a greater welfare for America—the

habitation of a sound economic life?"40 The temple of America was dedicated

to a sound economic life. The moneychangers or those who would make

beggars of their fellow citizens had no part in it. It was not their temple, but

the temple of right economics. What would become of the heretics, the

pagans, the outsiders? Roosevelt never said, but he made it no secret that

39 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Campaign Address at Cleveland, Ohio.," November 2, 1940, The American Presidency Project.

40 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Fireside Chat.," October 22, 1933. The American Presidency Project.

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they were not welcome in the America—the religion—which the New Deal

was defining.

When he accepted his nomination to be the Democratic candidate in

1932, Franklin Roosevelt made a pledge to himself and to the American

people. "Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new

order of competence and of courage." As chief priest and the latest prophet

of the American religion, FDR took it upon himself to redefine categories in

the civil religion to center on his own agenda. The New Deal was the ultimate

article of devotion. Those who were on his side were prophets with him,

ushering in a new enlightened order of "the greatest good to the greatest

number." Those who still sought after Mammon--material gain for

themselves--were the false priests of a pagan religion and defilers of the

temple of democracy.

"Probably no American politician has given so many speeches that

were effectively sermons," Burns wrote. He argues that Roosevelt's speeches

were intended to teach and instruct the people in moral living. That may be,

but they were also carefully crafted to make politics into a moral and

religious crusade against evil. By uniting Americans of every religious creed

behind a newly ecumenical civil religion with the New Deal at its center, FDR

made specifics of theology irrelevant. Embracing the social gospel with a

new fervor, he brought all of the symbols, language, and passion of religion

to bear against the outsiders--his Republican opponents. "I want to be a

Slonim 22

preaching president,"41 Franklin Roosevelt once said. And so he preached,

crusading tirelessly for the democratic faith worked out in the New Deal.

41 Robert Underhill, The Rise and Fall of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, (New York: Algora Publishing, 2012): 41.

Slonim 23

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