Download “A pact with God”: behind the religious rhetoric of Dwight Eisenhower

“A pact with God”: Behind The
Religious Rhetoric of Dwight
Eisenhower
Julie Putseys
HIST 339
Dr. Vitaliy Timofiiv
2
“A pact with God”: Behind The Religious
Rhetoric of Dwight Eisenhower
Introduction
Religion has always had a major impact on the politics of the United States,
but in the 1950’s, under Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency, this trend became even
more apparent. Not only did religion and state become more intertwined than before,
but the religiosity amongst the general population increased as well. Eisenhower
stimulated religious belief, through his use of religious language in his speeches and
through various other measures carried out while he was in office.
The first part of the following paper deals with observations of increased
religiosity in the White House. The second part concerns the domestic motives
behind this increased religiosity. The argument of this paper is that Eisenhower had a
specific political agenda in promoting religion; he was not an idealist in this matter,
but a pragmatist. Eisenhower tried to shape the ideals of American people and unify
them under religion – and in doing so suppressing any dissent – especially
communist dissent. Through his rhetoric, he also sharpened the cold war conflict, on
an ideological level, giving him a greater political platform on which he justified his
actions. In addition, by emphasizing that “he was guided by God,” Ike diminished his
own responsibility.
3
This paper makes use of Eisenhower’s inaugural address, Emmet John
Hughes’ political memoir The Ordeal of Power; A Political Memoir of the Eisenhower
Years and various State of Union speeches. Eisenhower’s inaugural address and his
speeches are significant sources and are interesting to analyze because they show
how Eisenhower promoted religious sentiment. These speeches also partially reveal
the motives behind his rhetoric, if read attentively. The Ordeal of Power is also an
important source, because Hughes seems to talk frankly, and the reader is not given
an idealized image of Dwight Eisenhower. Hughes’ memoir only mentions the topic of
religion and Eisenhower a few times, but when he does, it is significant. One gets to
know Eisenhower in a different light than through the speeches: as a pragmatic who
is not all that serious about his religion.
There has not been much secondary reading on the topic of faith and
Eisenhower. Twenty years after Eisenhower’s presidency, Midwest Journal of
Political Science published an article by Merlin Gustafson, “The Religious Role of the
President.” Gustafson’s article is biased and he firmly defends Eisenhower in his
religious policy. The next article on the topic, “Religious Dimensions of Presidential
Leadership: The Case of Dwight Eisenhower”, written by James David Fairbanks was
published in Presidential Studies Quarterly in 1982 . This article, again, is also
somewhat biased, as he does not question the words of the president. The most
recent monograph on religion and the presidency is one by Gary Scott Smith, called
Faith and the Presidency from George Washington to George W. Bush. His chapter
on Eisenhower entails much of the previous research and Smith remains neutral and
approaches the topic with a critical mind. Finally, an interesting essay by Ned
O’Gorman, “Eisenhower and the American Sublime”, appeared in Quarterly Journal
of Speech in 2008 and addressed the spiritual rhetoric of president Eisenhower in his
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inauguration speech. A lot of this research discusses the religiosity of Eisenhower
himself, and the “infiltration” of religion in the White House. None of the authors,
however, did extensive research about the why of these developments and
Eisenhower’s religious language. This paper attempts to give an answer on this
issue.
Eisenhower: A sincere advocate of religion?
“I am the most intensely religious man I know.” (Dwight D. Eisenhower, May 4, 1948)
During the Eisenhower presidency, the administration seemed more religious
than ever with the implementation of many measures that seemingly increased the
religiosity of the White House. Eisenhower proclaimed national days of prayer and
often attended religious ceremonies himself.1 The executive office carried out highly
publicized prayer breakfasts and prayer preceded every Cabinet session.2 The
president helped create the Foundation for Religious Action and met frequently with
religious delegations.3 Eisenhower’s administration added the words “Under God” to
the Pledge of Allegiance and Congress made the phrase “In God We Trust” the
national motto.4 The mandatory appearance of this motto on all coins and paper
1
Gary Scott Smith, Faith and the presidency from George Washington to George W. Bush, 222 (New
York, NY: Oxford University Press).
2
Merlin Gustafson, “The Religious Role of the President,” Midwest Journal of Political Science 14
(1970): 710.
3
Gary Scott Smith, Faith and the presidency, 222.
4
Ibidem.
5
currency is still seen today. In 1956, an office for religious activities was created and
Frederic Fox was appointed as “The Pastor in the White House”. Eisenhower’s
administrative team contained several religious players: Ezra Taft Benson, the
Secretary of Agriculture was a Mormon apostle, the Secretaries of Health, Education
and Welfare were active Methodists and
John foster Dulles was a Protestant
laymen. 5
Eisenhower claimed that he was the most intensely religious man he knew,
but this should be nuanced. Dwight grew up in a very religious family and he and his
brothers were required to attend family devotions and Sunday school.6 Eisenhower,
however, never seemed to care much about his parents’ practices and pietism.7 Later
in his life, when he joined the military, he did not have the reputation of being a
religious man.8 During the Second World War, however, stories about the general
praying became legendary.9 Through all of this, Eisenhower still had not joined a
church.
Suddenly, while campaigning for presidency, Eisenhower’s interest in religion
was stirred; his brother Milton explained this as not only a search for personal inner
peace, but also as an effort to give “spiritual stimulation to the rest of the country”.10
He still waited to join the church until February 1953, shortly after his inauguration.11
After he became a member, Eisenhower attended church frequently and continued to
5
Ibid, 202.
6
Ibid, 223.
7
Ibidem.
8
Merlin Gustafson, “The Religious role,” 261.
9
Gary Scott Smith, Faith and the presidency, 227
10
quoted in James David Fairbanks, “Religious Dimensions of Presidential Leadership: The Case of
Dwight Eisenhower,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, 12 (1982): 261.
11
Gary Scott Smith, Faith and the presidency, 224.
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do so even after his presidency, indicating that his faith was genuine, or at least that
he or Mamie was attached to the tradition.12
Eisenhower did not always seem to take his faith that seriously, however. Off
the record, he spoke carelessly and even slightly scornful of religion. In his political
memoir, Hughes states that Ike’s personal concern with either religion or philosophy
appeared casual at best.13 “He enrolled in the Presbyterian church in Washington
after his election in a spirit suggesting merely that he viewed the act as appropriate to
the presidential office. And the ritual of the Cabinet prayer was performed with the
same perfunctory air”, writes Hughes.14 In addition, Eisenhower
mocked Ezra
Benson’s faith during a Cabinet meeting, where he said, irritated with Benson’s
slowness: “I really think Ezra
is less concerned with his Department than with
making sure I open every session with a prayer.”15 Another day, Hughes reports,
Eisenhower made a characteristically casual remark about a film on Luther he had
watched the previous night: “I suppose some Catholics might resent it, but –what the
devil – it was all four hundred years ago anyway, wasn’t it?”16
In conclusion, the intensity of Eisenhower’s faith should be questioned. His
extensive religious worship and his partaking in public worship were most probably
not to express his heartfelt conviction. His faith might have been genuine, but it
appears not to have been as central to Eisenhower’s philosophy and persona as he
12
Ibid, 258.
13
Emmet John Hughes, The Ordeal of power; a political memoir of the Eisenhower years, 150 (New
York Atheneum).
14
Ibidem.
15
Ibid, 54.
16
Ibid, 150.
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wanted others to think. Political gain motivated
his spiritual language and the
publicity of the worship.
“The crusade towards the light?”:
Eisenhower’s intentions behind his
religious rhetoric
“… Would you permit me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer of my own.”
(Eisenhower, 1952)
The fact that Eisenhower started his inaugural address with a prayer and
extensively used religious rhetoric throughout the speech,
Eisenhower’s presidency.
characterized
His speeches, especially his inaugural address, were
interspersed with pastoral language. During the course of his inaugural address,
Eisenhower used the word “faith” fourteen times and “God” seven times. Considering
that an inaugural address is always thoroughly thought through, one can conclude
that the religious rhetoric was not coincidental. Behind Eisenhower’s rhetoric and
the White House’s measures, discussed above, there were clear motives.
One of the most obvious motives was to gain popularity. He knew the majority
of the American people was religious and wanted their vote. He was encouraged in
this by the great quantities of religious letters he received, each one of which he
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consciously answered.17 The notion that he tried to gain popularity with his public
piety, was something that at the time of his presidency, was already being
criticized.18
A second important motive of his religious policy is the creation of unity among
the American people who had faith. “The strength of all free peoples lies in unity; their
danger in discord,” expressed Eisenhower in his inauguration speech. He wanted to
create a unified “moral community,” which could be founded by providing the people
ultimate visions, fear and hope.19 His moral community consisted of people of all
faiths, no matter which one. This type of faith is named the “civil religion” of America
by Robert Bellah. Bellah states that Americans approved of “religion in general,
without being particularly concerned about the content of that faith. 20 Dwight
Eisenhower used this idea of a Civil Religion.
“Whatever our individual church,
whatever our personal creed, our common faith in God is a common bond among
us,” he said.21 On a different occasion, he made the remark that “the government
makes no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith – and I don’t care
what it is”.22 He was careful not to exclude anyone, with the exception of one group:
the atheists. But those were, in his eyes, communists, or more susceptible to
communism at the very least, thus should be isolated in order not to “contaminate”
his conformist unity. “There’s a battle between those people who believe man is
nothing more than just an educated animal and those who believe that he is
17
Merlin Gustafson, “The Religious Role,” 715.
18
Gary Scott Smith, Faith and the presidency, 225.
19
Ned O’Gorman, “Eisenhower and the American Sublime,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 94 (2008):
49.
20
Robert Stauffer, “Bellah’s Civil Religion,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 14 (1975): 390.
21
quoted in Gary Scott Smith, Faith and the presidency, 233.
22
quoted in James David Fairbanks, “Religious Dimensions,” 264.
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something else. […] It is atheism against some kind of religion, ” he stated.23 From
this perspective, Eisenhower’s religious rhetoric was a weapon against dissent and
created conformism. Whether or not it was his intention to get a firmer grip on his
population via religion – the Marxist idea of “religion is the opium of the masses” –
can be discussed.
The third motive concerns the Cold War. On the one hand, Eisenhower
wanted to diminish the Cold War panic among the population, and he believed this
could be achieved through faith.24 On the other hand, he wanted to replace the
military warfare with ideological warfare. Eisenhower was annoyed with the
definitions of American strength in terms of military power or simple anti-soviet
truculence.25 “He groped for a higher kind of power – and the spiritual values that
inspired all civilizations based upon a religious faith,” Hughes’ memoir tells us.26 In
consequence, his rhetoric describing the communists, was quite dramatic. “The
enemies of this faith know no god but force, no devotion but its use,” Eisenhower
stressed in his inaugural address. In the State of Union of 1955 he sneered at the
communists calling
them “soulless, animated machines to be enslaved
and
consumed by the state for its own glorification”. “The reactionaries of communist
materialism, violent antagonists of any form of religion, would return man to a horrible
bondage,” he asserted in the “New Look” speech on 25 August 1952. Ike constantly
used biblical rhetoric in talking about the Cold War, which he presented as a
diabolical conflict between a principled, spiritual America and a materialistic, atheistic
23
quoted in ibidem.
24
Ned O’Gorman, “Eisenhower and the American Sublime,” 66.
25
Emmet John Hughes, The ordeal of power, 330.
26
ibidem.
10
Soviet Union.27 It strikes a bit odd that a consumerist country such as the United
States in the 1950s condemned the Soviet-Union for being materialistic, but
Eisenhower felt he had to compensate the United States’ technological arrears,
particularly in space.28
He did so by calling the Soviet Union materialistic and
emphasizing the United states’ religiosity in contrast. Another example of biblical
rhetoric talking about the Cold War conflict is the image of the Exodus he invoked in
numerous of speeches. This is particularly obvious in his State of the Union speech
of 1954 where he claimed: “There is no obstacle on [America’s forward road] she
[America] will not surmount in her march toward a lasting peace
prosperous world.”
in a free and
This imagery was also adopted in the inauguration speech,
amongst others, where Eisenhower mentioned “the crusade” of the people against
“the evil force,” being the Soviet Union.
Another reason why Eisenhower tried to stimulate the people’s religiosity was
to compel them to work harder, which would result in a growth of the economy.
“Moral stamina means more energy and more productivity on the farm and in the
factory,” was his reasoning.29 Emmett Hughes wrote in The Ordeal of Power that, in
the hours he spent with Eisenhower preparing his inaugural addressl, the presidentto-be continually reverted to the theme of “the individual”.30 Hughes recalls
Eisenhower saying: “It’s not just a time of crisis for the statesmen and the diplomats.
Every individual has to understand to produce. He’s got to work harder than ever –
27
Ned O’Gorman, “Eisenhower and the American Sublime,” 61.
28
The Soviet Union launched their first satellite, Sputnik 1, into space on October 3, 1957. On
November 3, 1958, Laika, the first dog in space, was the first living creature in space. Many other
space flights followed, which seriously bothered the American government.
29
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History, “Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Inaugural
Address, Tuesday, January 20, 1953,” Virtual Library, http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/42eise1.htm
(accessed April 1, 2010).
30
Emmet John Hughes, The ordeal of power, 53.
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and he’s got to understand why.”31 Eisenhower claimed to believe in the infinite worth
of the individual, “because he [the individual] was born in the image of God.”32
Eisenhower’s stance on religion also counted as a justification for the minimal
state intervention that characterized his presidency. He made a connection between
faith and freedom, speaking of “the kingdom of the spirit,” being “the true source of
the freedom that we value above all things.”33 He persisted that freedom was rooted
in the certainty that the brotherhood of all men springs from the fatherhood of God.34
“No man is another’s master,” Eisenhower insisted.35 Thus the president as well,
should keep out of those things that the people can do for themselves, in optimizing
their autonomy.
A last possible motive concerns the role that Eisenhower ascribed to himself in
his rhetoric. He humbly began his inauguration speech - by asking permission to
utter “a little private payer.” These first few words as a president indicated what role
Eisenhower wanted to play: that of a priest, a messenger between the people and
God. O’Gorman speaks of a kind of Weberian priestcraft, where priests are
presented as “institutionalized mediators, absolvers, interpreters and vanguards of
change.”36 In taking such a modest position, Eisenhower, purposely or not,
diminished his own accountability in case of a crisis, implicitly stating “Don’t blame
me - I’m only the messenger!” Ike numerously evoked the impression that matters
were out of his hands, and rather in the hands of the American people – literally. He
31
ibidem.
32
quoted in James David Fairbanks, “The religious role,” 264.
33
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History, “Dwight Eisenhower, State of the Union,
1954,” Virtual Library, http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/dde1954.htm (accessed April 1, 2010).
34
Gary Scott Smith, Faith and the presidency, 230.
35
Ibidem.
36
James David Fairbanks, “The Religious Role,” 55-56.
12
implied that by praying, the Americans could influence not only their own destiny, but
that of their country as well. In the prayer that preceded his inauguration speech,
Eisenhower pleaded: “Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from
wrong, and allow all our words and actions to be governed thereby.” In his second
inaugural address, Eisenhower prays: “May the light of freedom, coming to all
darkened lands, flame brightly – until at last the darkness is no more,” again, bringing
to mind a higher power than his own, and in this way partly avoiding his own
responsibility.
In conclusion, Eisenhower was a devout man, but not nearly as devout as he
led the American people to believe. Behind his seemingly intense spirituality, his
rhetoric and the various changes that made the Eisenhower administration look more
spiritual, there were political, economic and personal motives. Of course, this isn’t a
method used by President Eisenhower alone. A recent example of a President who
used religion for political gain, is president George W. Bush, who used the religious
discourse, among other things, to justify his wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. As
long as religion has ground in the United States, there’s no doubt that the White
House will keep using religion as a political “weapon.”
13
Primary sources
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History. “Dwight D. Eisenhower,
First Inaugural Address, Tuesday, January 20, 1953.” Virtual Library.
http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/42eise1.htm (accessed April 1, 2010).
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History, “Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Second Inaugural Address, Monday, January 21, 1957.” Virtual Library.
http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/43eise2.htm (accessed April 1, 2010).
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History, “Dwight Eisenhower, “State
of the Union, 1954” .” Virtual Library. http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/dde1954.htm
(accessed April 1, 2010).
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History, “Dwight Eisenhower, “State
of the Union, 1955”.” Virtual Library. http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/dde1955.htm
(accessed April 1, 2010).
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History, “Dwight Eisenhower, “State
of the Union, 1956”.” Virtual Library. http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/dde1956.htm
(accessed April 1, 2010).
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History, “Dwight Eisenhower, “State
of the Union, 1957”.” Virtual Library. http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/dde1957.htm
(accessed April 1, 2010).
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History, “Dwight EIsenhower, “State
of the Union, 1958”.” Virtual Library. http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/dde1958.htm
(accessed April 1, 2010).
14
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History, “Dwight EIsenhower, “State
of the Union, 1959”.” Virtual Library. http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/dde1959.htm
(accessed April 1, 2010).
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History, “Dwight EIsenhower, “State
of the Union, 1960”.” Virtual Library. http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/dde1960.htm
(accessed April 1, 2010).
Hughes, Emmet John. The ordeal of power; a political memoir of the Eisenhower
years. New York Atheneum, 1963.
15
Secondary sources
Fairbanks, James David. “Religious Dimensions of Presidential Leadership: The
Case of Dwight Eisenhower.” Presidential Studies Quarterly, 12 (1982): 260-267.
Gustafson, Merlin. “The Religious Role of the President.” Midwest Journal of Political
Science 14 (1970): 708-722.
O’Gorman, Ned. “Eisenhower and the American Sublime.” Quarterly Journal of
Speech 94 (2008): 44-72.
Smith, Gary Scott. Faith and the presidency from George Washington to George W.
Bush. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Stauffer, Robert. “Bellah’s Civil Religion . ” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,
14 (1975): 390-395.