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America’s Spiritual-Industrial Complex and the Policy of Revival in the Early Cold War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2010

Jonathan Herzog
Jonathan Herzog*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Journal of Policy History , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 337 - 365
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Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

NOTES

1. The two specific works I allude to are David Riesman, in collaboration with Denney, Reuel and Glazer, Nathan, The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character (New Haven, 1950)Google Scholar, and Whyte, William H., The Organization Man (Garden City, N.Y., 1957)Google Scholar.

2. For works that examine how religious revivals reflect social, cultural, and economic changes as movements from the bottom up, see Bushman, Richard L., From Puritan to Yankee: Character and the Social Order in Connecticut, 1690–1765 (Cambridge, Mass., 1967)Google Scholar; Hatch, Nathan O., The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven, 1989)Google Scholar; and Heyrman, Christine Leigh, Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (New York, 1997)Google Scholar. Bushman told not so much a story of the Great Awakening as a tale of how a revival could challenge and eventually attenuate the law and authority of the colony’s governing institutions. For his part, Hatch studied the Second Great Awakening and saw reflected a host of larger societal issues, such as democratization, populism, class, and, as did Bushman, a “crisis of authority.” Likewise, in her exploration of evangelical culture during the Second Great Awakening, Christine Leigh Heyrman used religion to explore questions of class, order, gender, and social compromise. For the single best study of America’s religious economy that traces the rise and fall of denominations across time, see Finke, Roger and Stark, Rodney, The Churching of America, 1776–2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, 2005)Google Scholar.

3. In a gesture underscoring the important relationship between religion and policy, the Journal of Policy History devoted a special issue to this topic in 2001. For religion and welfare policy, see Carlson-Thies, Stanley W., “Charitable Choice: Bringing Religion Back in American Welfare,” Journal of Policy History 13, no. 1 (2001): 109–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Coleman, John Aloysius, “American Catholicism, Catholic Charities U.S.A., and Welfare Reform,” Journal of Policy History 13, no. 1 (2001): 73–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Morgan, Kimberly J., Working Mothers and the Welfare State: Religion and Politics in Work-Family Policies in Western Europe and the United States (Stanford, 2006)Google Scholar. For work on policy and faith-based organizations, see Roberts-DeGennaro, Maria, “Executive Orders for the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives,” Journal of Policy Practice 5, no. 4 (2006): 55–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Sosin, Michael R. and Rathgeb, Steven, “New Responsibilities of Faith-Related Agencies,” Policy Studies Journal 34, no. 4 (2006): 533–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For religion and foreign policy, see Inboden, William, Religion and American Foreign Policy, 1945–1960: The Soul of Containment (New York, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Baumgartner, Jody C., Francia, Peter L., and Morris, Jonathan S., “A Clash of Civilizations? The Influence of Religion on Public Opinion of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East,” Political Research Quarterly 61, no. 2 (2008): 171–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Froese, Paul and Mencken, Carson F., “A U.S. Holy War? The Effects of Religion on Iraq War Policy Attitudes,” Social Science Quarterly 90, no. 1 (2009): 103–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the influence of religious ideas or institutions on the making of public policy, see Hart, D. G., “Mainstream Protestantism, ‘Conservative’ Religion, and Civil Society,” Journal of Policy History 13, no. 1 (2001): 19–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reichley, A. James, “Faith in Politics,” Journal of Policy History 1, no. 1 (2001): 157–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Micon, Joe, “Limestone Prophets: Gauging the Effectiveness of Religious Political Action Organizations that Lobby State Legislatures,” Sociology of Religion 69, no. 4 (2008): 397–413CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Fink, Simon, “Politics as Usual or Bringing Religion Back In? The Influence of Parties, Institutions, Economic Interests, and Religion on Embryo Research,” Comparative Political Studies 41, no. 12 (2008): 1631–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4. Heclo, Hugh, “Religion and Public Policy: An Introduction,” Journal of Policy History 1, no. 1 (2001): 4–6Google Scholar.

5. Denny, Harold, “Slowly Religion Is Starving in Russia,” New York Times, 12 May 1935, SM7Google Scholar. For studies of American attitudes toward Bolshevik Russia, including its persecution of religion, see Filene, Peter G., Americans and the Soviet Experiment, 1917–1933 (Cambridge, Mass., 1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Filene, Peter G., American Views of Soviet Russia, 1917–1965 (Homewood, Ill., 1968)Google Scholar; Cooke, Richard J., Religion in Russia Under the Soviets (New York, 1924)Google Scholar; and Mecklenburg, George, Russia Challenges Religion (New York, 1934)Google Scholar. Marcosson, Isaac F., “After Lenine—What? The Future of Russia,” Saturday Evening Post, 14 February 1925, 31, 129, 133Google Scholar.

6. For examples of these peculiar conversion narratives, see Chambers, Whittaker, Witness (New York, 1952)Google Scholar; Bentley, Elizabeth, Out of Bondage (New York, 1951)Google Scholar; Crossman, Richard, ed., The God That Failed (New York, 1949)Google Scholar; Budenz, Louis F., This Is My Story (New York, 1947)Google Scholar; Niebuhr, Reinhold, “The Religion of Communism,” Atlantic Monthly, April 1931, 462–70Google Scholar; Gordin, Abba, Communism Unmasked (New York, 1940), 31, 50–51, 55–57Google Scholar; Kevane, Eugene, “The Depths of Bolshevism,” Commonweal, 3 September 1937, 433–35Google Scholar. For examinations of the American Catholic response to early Cold War events in Europe, see Kent, Peter C., The Lonely Cold War of Pope Pius XII (Montreal, 2002)Google Scholar; Kselman, Thomas A. and Avella, Steven, “Marian Piety and the Cold War in the United States,” Catholic Historical Review 72, no. 3 (1986): 403–24Google Scholar; Morgan, Thomas B., Faith Is a Weapon (New York, 1952)Google Scholar; and O’Connor, David L., Defenders of the Faith: American Catholic Lay Organizations and Anticommunism, 1917–1975 (Ph.D. diss., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2000)Google Scholar.

7. Dulles, John Foster, “Thoughts on Soviet Policy and What to Do About It,” Life, 10 June 1946, 120Google Scholar; “The Challenge,” Time, 17 March 1947, 71–79Google Scholar; C. T. Lanham, “The Moral Core of Military Strength,” 16 February 1949, Box 33, Folder 2-c, Records of the President’s Committee on Religion and Welfare in the Armed Forces (Truman Presidential Library, Independence, Mo.), hereafter cited as PCRW Papers; “Science Without Conscience Menaces Man, Bradley Says,” Washington Post, 11 November 1948, 1Google Scholar.

8. Harry S. Truman, “Statement by the President,” 16 September 1948, Box 1, Folder 2-b; Press Release, 27 October 1948, PCRW Papers, Box 1, Folder 2-a. For more detail on the Weil Committee and its effect on military training, see Loveland, Anne C., “Character Education in the U.S. Army, 1947–1977,” Journal of Military History 64 (July 2000): 795–818CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Bogle, Lori Lyn, The Pentagon’s Battle for the American Mind (College Station, Tex., 2004)Google Scholar.

9. Harry S. Truman, “Religion in American Life,” 30 October 1949, Religion 76, Official File (Truman Presidential Library, Independence, Mo.); Press Release, 16 January 1953, Box 8, Inaugural Committee of 1953 Records (Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kans.); “God’s Float Will Lead the Inaugural Parade,” New York Times, 19 January 1953Google Scholar. For an accounting of these tacit policies, see Foglesong, David S., The American Mission and the “Evil” Empire (New York, 2007)Google Scholar; Gunn, T. Jeremy, Spiritual Weapons: The Cold War and the Forging of an American National Religion (Westport, Conn., 2009)Google Scholar; Whitfield, Stephen J., The Culture of the Cold War (Baltimore, 1991)Google Scholar; Kirby, Dianne, ed., Religion and the Cold War (New York, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10. “Board of Trustees of the American Heritage Foundation,” brochure, 27 May 1947, Box 22, Folder 10, Henry R. Luce Papers (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.), hereafter cited as Luce Papers; “American Heritage Program,” brochure, n.d., Box 18, Tom C. Clark Papers (Truman Presidential Library, Independence, Mo.), hereafter cited as Clark Papers; American Heritage Foundation, “Documents of the Freedom Train,” brochure, Box 22, Folder 10, Luce Papers; Robert T. Elson to Allen Grover, 27 May 1947, Box 22, Folder 10, Luce Papers. The most comprehensive examination of the Freedom Train is found in Wall, Wendy Lynn, Inventing the “American Way”: The Politics of Consensus from the New Deal to the Civil Rights Movement (New York, 2008), 201–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Wall argues that the project was supported by businessmen for the purpose of reselling Americans in the postwar period on the promise of free enterprise. See also Little, Stuart J., “The Freedom Train: Citizenship and Postwar Culture, 1946–1949,” American Studies 34, no. 1 (1993): 35–67Google Scholar.

11. Tom C. Clark, “Address to the National Heritage Foundation,” 22 May 1947, Box 18, Clark Papers; Tom C. Clark, “Address to the Second National Conference on Citizenship,” 10 May 1947, Box 18, Clark Papers; Tom C. Clark, “Address on the 215th Anniversary of George Washington’s Birth,” 22 February 1947, Box 18, Clark Papers; Tom C. Clark, “Address Before the National Conference on Catholic Youth Work,” 21 May 1947, Box 18, Clark Papers.

12. Tom C. Clark, “Address Before the International Sunday School Convention,” 24 July 1947, Box 18, Clark Papers.

13. “Freedom Train Dedicated Amid Attack on Reds,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 18 September 1947, 7Google Scholar; American Heritage Foundation, “American Heritage Program.”

14. American Heritage Foundation, “Highlights of the National Rededication Program of the American Heritage Foundation,” brochure, 1947, Box 22, Folder 10, Luce Papers.

15. Ibid.; Wall, , Inventing the “American Way,” 222Google Scholar.

16. “Ad Council Turns to Housing Issue,” New York Times, 3 January 1946, 30Google Scholar.

17. Advertising Council, Advertising Proofs, 1949, Box 52, Folder 11, Luce Papers.

18. “Advertising Group Sets Peace Drives,” New York Times, 6 June 1946, 42Google Scholar. Advertising Council, “The Advertising Council: What It Is and What It Does,” brochure, 1950, Box 52, Folder 11, Luce Papers. “Go-to-Church Ads Win Wide Support,” New York Times, 5 December 1949, F5Google Scholar.

19. Truman, “Religion in American Life.” For a detailed description of the Advertising Council’s various Cold War campaigns, including RIAL, see Lykins, Daniel L., From Total War to Total Diplomacy: The Advertising Council and the Construction of the Cold War Consensus (Westport, Conn., 2003)Google Scholar. “Religion’s Revival Sought for Nation,” New York Times, 29 October 1950, 45Google Scholar; “Wilson Is Praised for Religious Gain,” New York Times, 19 January 1951, 5Google Scholar.

20. “Church Advertising Raises Attendance,” New York Times, 8 February 1952, 15Google Scholar; Committee on Religion in American Life, Annual Report, 1956, James M. Lambie Papers, Box 38, Folder R (Eisenhower Library).

21. “A Spiritual Airlift,” New York Times, 22 October 1950, 23Google Scholar; National Crusade for Freedom Council, Report, 24 July 1950, Box 33, Folder 11, Luce Papers.

22. Radio Free Europe was formed by a splinter group of the American Heritage Foundation called the National Committee for a Free Europe. It was funded by a coterie of powerful businessmen disillusioned with the government’s Voice of America. See Mickelson, Sig, America’s Other Voice: The Story of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (New York, 1983)Google Scholar. “Freedom Crusade Will Begin September 4,” New York Times, 28 July 1950, 23Google Scholar; National Crusade for Freedom Council, Join the Crusade for Freedom, 1950, Box 33, Folder 11, Luce Papers.

23. “Freedom Crusade Seeks Volunteers,” New York Times, 31 August 1950, 35Google Scholar; “Crusade For Freedom Petitions Draw Area Signatures,” Washington Post, 3 October 1950, B1Google Scholar; “Scrolls at Fire Houses,” New York Times, 13 October 1950, 41Google Scholar; Editorial, “Crusade for Freedom,” New York Times, 28 July 1950, 20Google Scholar; Editorial, “Crusade for Freedom,” Washington Post, 13 August 1950, B4Google Scholar; Editorial, “Enlist in the Crusade for Freedom,” Los Angeles Times, 23 August 1950, A4Google Scholar. “Text of Eisenhower Call for Crusade,” New York Times, 5 September 1950, 14Google Scholar.

24. Crusade for Freedom, “Crusade for Freedom Statement of Purpose,” report, 1950, Box 33, Folder 11, Luce Papers; “Crusade for Freedom Fact Sheet,” report, 1950, Box 33, Folder 11, Luce Papers; “Sermons to Stress Religious Liberty,” New York Times, 8 October 1950, 50Google Scholar; “Freedom Sunday Is Set,” New York Times, 6 October 1950, 22Google Scholar.

25. “So. Cal Set for July Fourth Dedication to Liberty,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, 2 July 1951, B1Google Scholar; Committee to Proclaim Liberty, “Proclaim Liberty,” brochure, 1953, Box 737, Folder 144-F (1), Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers, Official File (Eisenhower Library); Ingebretsen, James C., “Hailing Freedom Under God,” Los Angeles Times, 18 June 1951, A4Google Scholar; “Committee to Proclaim Liberty Formed to Celebrate July 4,” Los Angeles Times, 8 June 1951, A1Google Scholar.

26. The Committee to Proclaim Liberty also included university administrators from Notre Dame, Harvard, and Southern Methodist. See Committee to Proclaim Liberty, “Proclaim Liberty.” Earl Warren, Proclamation, 29 June 1953, Box 737, Folder 144-F (1), Eisenhower Papers Official File.

27. Committee to Proclaim Liberty, “Proclaim Liberty”; Ingebretsen, “Hailing Freedom Under God.”

28. See Travers, Len, Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic (Amherst, Mass., 1997), 107–54Google Scholar. One could make the case that the Fourth of July was an example of civil religion, but still this conception carried a different meaning than that proposed by CPL. See Appelbaum, Diana Karter, The Glorious Fourth: An American Holiday, An American History (New York, 1989), 20Google Scholar.

29. “Mayor Proclaims Week of Freedom Under God,” Los Angeles Times, 17 June 1955, A8Google Scholar.

30. “Foundation for Religious Action in the Social and Civil Disorder,” brochure, 1954, Box 37, Folder 1, Luce Papers; Foundation for Religious Action, report, 1954, Box 738, Folder 144-G-1, Eisenhower Papers Official File.

31. “Moral Revival Pushed,” New York Times, 10 June 1954, 33Google Scholar; “President Urges Self-Discipline,” New York Times, 10 November 1954, 24Google Scholar; Edward L. Elson to Eisenhower, 3 October 1954, Box 738, Folder 144-G-1, Eisenhower Papers Official File; “Highlight of the First National Conference on the Spiritual Foundations of American Democracy,” report, 1954, Box 738, Folder 144-G-1, Eisenhower Papers Official File; Foundation for Religious Action, “Things You May Remember from the Second National Conference on Spiritual Foundations,” brochure, 1955, Box 37, Folder 1, Luce Papers.

32. Dole, Kenneth, “News of the Churches,” Washington Post and Times Herald, 12 June 1954, 9Google Scholar; Charles W. Lowry to Henry R. Luce, 22 July 1954, Box 37, Folder 1, Luce Papers; Richard M. Nixon to Walter B. Smith, 10 September 1954, Box 2, Folder 000.3, Operations Coordinating Board Central Files (Eisenhower Library); Foundation for Religious Action, “Proposal to OCB,” report, 1954, Box 2, Folder 000.3, Operations Coordinating Board Central Files.

33. Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Remarks to the First National Conference on the Spiritual Foundations of American Democracy,” 9 November 1954, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Eisenhower, 1954 (Washington, D.C., 1961), 327Google Scholar; Dugan, George, “Moslem Leader Asks Moral Gain,” New York Times, 25 October 1955, 34Google Scholar; Laurence S. Kuter to Charles W. Lowry, 11 January 1955, Box 37, Folder 1, Luce Papers.

34. “Churchmen See Spiritual Gains,” Washington Post and Times Herald, 12 January 1955, 15Google Scholar; Dugan, George, “American Data on Organized Faiths Emphasizes New Widespread Growth in This Country,” New York Times, 12 April 1954, A1Google Scholar.

35. For a good overview of prayer during the 1950s, see Hudnut-Beumler, James, Looking for God in the Suburbs: The Religion of the American Dream and Its Critics, 1945–1965 (New Brunswick, 1994), 44–47Google Scholar; Weales, Gerald, “A Family That Prays Together Weighs Together,” New Republic, 25 March 1957, 19–20Google Scholar; “Phone Devotions Shared by Thousands,” Washington Post and Times Herald, 25 February 1956, 23Google Scholar; Survey by Gallup Organization, 16 June–21 June 1951Google Scholar, available at iPoll Databank, University of Connecticut, Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/ipoll.html (accessed 15 January 2010).

36. George Dugan, “American Data on Organized Faiths Emphasize New Widespread Growth in This Country”; “Report Church Membership at All-Time High,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 6 September 1955, A1Google Scholar.

37. Surveys by the Gallup Organization, 24 February–1 March 1939Google Scholar; 21 November–26 November 1940; 1–7 June June 1942; 2 May–7 May 1954; 15 March–20 March 1957, available at iPoll Databank. One should note that the results of such polls vary according to the time they were taken. But despite these minor variations, it is clear when examining the polls from 1939 to 1958 that self-reporting of religious attendance among Americans climbs by 10–15 percent. For the tendency of Americans to exaggerate attendance, see Hadaway, C. Kirk, Marler, Penny Long, and Chaves, Mark, “Overreporting Church Attendance: Evidence That Demands the Same Verdict,” American Sociological Review 63 (February 1998): 122–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Hadaway, Kirk, Marler, Penny Long, and Chaves, Mark, “What the Polls Don’t Show: A Closer Look at U.S. Church Attendance,” American Sociological Review 58 (December 1993): 741–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Surveys by the Gallup Organization, 7 November–12 November 1947Google Scholar; 28 March–2 April 1953, available at iPoll Databank.

38. Indeed, in 1954, when researchers returned to Plainville, a pseudonym given to an anonymous Missouri farming community, they noticed that the nonbelievers had gone underground. During the first round of research there from 1939 to 1941, social scientists detected a sizable group of agnostics, atheists, and irreligious inhabitants. In their follow-up thirteen years later, researchers concluded that the number of nonbelievers in Plainville had probably remained constant, but that “many agnostics … do not declare their belief, and at the same time advocate support of local churches, arguing that they stand for moral right as opposed to wrong.” West, James, Plainville, U.S.A. (New York, 1945), 142Google Scholar; Gallagher, Art Jr.Plainville: Fifteen Years Later (New York, 1961), 169Google Scholar.

39. “Clergy Skeptical over Revivalism,” New York Times, 12 September 1955, 18Google Scholar; “Church Leader Says Revival Isn’t Genuine,” Washington Post and Times Herald, 19 May 1955, 21Google Scholar; “‘Juke Box’ Religion Hit by Adventist Speaker,” Washington Post and Times Herald, 9 June 1956, 18Google Scholar; Dole, Kenneth, “News of the Churches,” Washington Post and Times Herald, 19 February 1955, 13Google Scholar; Meserve, Harry C., “The New Piety,” Atlantic Monthly, June 1955, 35Google Scholar.

40. Gallup, George, “Religious ‘Revival’ May Be Losing Surge,” Los Angeles Times, 18 April 1962, 17Google Scholar; Survey by the Gallup Organization, 19–24 February 1965Google Scholar, available at iPoll Databank. For example, when polled in 1966, 70 percent of Americans opposed the Supreme Court’s ruling against school prayer. Survey by Louis Harris & Associates, November 1966Google Scholar, available at iPoll Databank. Montgomery, Paul L., “Religion Revival Found Leveling,” New York Times, 27 December 1963, 13Google Scholar.

41. Kennedy, John F., “Speech at the VFW Convention,” 26 August 1960, Wooley, John and Peters, Gerhard, eds., The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa BarbaraGoogle Scholar. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ (accessed 15 January 2010), hereafter cited as APP.

42. John F. Kennedy, “Address Before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association,” 12 September 1960, APP.

43. Lee Miller, William, Piety Along the Potomac: Notes on Politics and Morals in the Fifties (Boston, 1964) 34, 41–42, 44Google Scholar; “He’s Unqualified for Top Job, Says Neely,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 29 March 1955Google Scholar, 12; “Senator Neely Lashes Out at Eisenhower,” Los Angeles Times, 29 March 1955Google Scholar, 12; “Ike Denounced for Golfing, Church Going; Two G.O.P Senators Reply to Criticism,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 29 March 1955Google Scholar, 12.

44. Congressional Record, 84 Cong., 1 sess., 22 June 1955, A4456–57.

45. Editorial, “Spotting Communists,” New York Times, 14 June 1955, 28Google Scholar; “Army Cancels Booklet Linking Words to Reds,” New York Times, 15 June 1955, 7Google Scholar.

46. For a more detailed analysis of the Fulbright Memorandum and its political context, see Critchlow, Donald T., Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman’s Crusade (Princeton, 2005), 96–103Google Scholar; Phillips, Cabell, “Right-Wing Talks by Officers Curbed,” New York Times, 21 July 1961, 1Google Scholar.

47. The centrality of religion to conservative thought is well displayed in the seminal works of conservative intellectuals during the early Cold War. See Kirk, Russell, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana (Chicago, 1953)Google Scholar; Weaver, Richard M., Ideas Have Consequences (Chicago, 1949)Google Scholar; Buckley, William F. Jr., God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of “Academic Freedom” (Chicago, 1951)Google Scholar; Luce, Clare Boothe, Is Communism Compatible with Christianity? (New York, 1946)Google Scholar, Catholic Pamphlet Collection, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.; Schwarz, Frederick, Beating the Unbeatable Foe: One Man’s Victory Over Communism, Leviathan, and the Last Enemy (Washington, D.C., 1996)Google Scholar; Hargis, Billy James, Communist America … Must It Be? (Tulsa, 1960)Google Scholar; Hargis, Billy James, The Far Left (Tulsa, 1964)Google Scholar.

48. For examples of Kennedy’s differing approach to the relationship between religion and society, see John F. Kennedy, “Speech at the VFW Convention,” 26 August 1960, APP; John F. Kennedy, “Speech in Portland, OR,” 7 September 1960, APP; John F. Kennedy, “Address Before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association,” 12 September 1960, APP; and John F. Kennedy, “Speech in Bowling Green, KY,” 8 October 1960, APP; John F. Kennedy, “The President’s News Conference of June 27, 1962,” APP.

49. Kelley, Dean M., Why Conservative Churches Are Growing: A Study in Sociology of Religion (New York, 1972), viiiGoogle Scholar. Stark and Finke argue that when the cost of membership increases, the net gains of membership increase as well, and such religious traditions grow, though they do warn that costs alone do not determine growth or failure. See Stark, and Finke, , The Churching of America, 250–51Google Scholar.

50. Bellah, Robert N., “Civil Religion in America,” Daedalus 96 (Winter 1967): 1–21Google Scholar. Will Herberg agreed with Bellah insofar as he believed civil religion was synonymous with the American Way of Life. See Herberg, Will, “America’s Civil Religion: What It Is and Whence It Comes,” in American Civil Religion, ed. Richey, Russell E. and Jones, Donald G. (New York, 1974), 76–88Google Scholar.

51. Rodney Stark and Roger Finke call this process “sacralization,” which they define as a breakdown of differentiation between sacred and secular and the suffusion of basic societal functions with religious symbols and belief. See Stark, and Finke, , Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2000), 193–217Google Scholar.

52. For the best-known account of structural denominational change in the postwar period, see Wuthnow, Robert, The Restructuring of American Religion: Society and Faith Since World War II (Princeton, 1988)Google Scholar.