Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American PresidentsGaryScott Smith. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Abstract

Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American Presidents Gary Scott Smith. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.Gary Scott Smith, Chair of the History Department at Grove City College, is the author of numerous books on history and religion, including Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush (2006). This book and the one under review serve as bookends, of sorts. Faith and the Presidency explores the religious thought of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight David Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and John F. Kennedy, the first president to have to publicly defend his Catholic religion as he did in September 1960 before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in Houston, Texas. Shades of Barack Obama, who, almost fifty years later, had to defend himself against persistent charges that he was a Muslim!Now, in Religion in the Oval Office, Smith takes on eleven more chief executives: John Adams, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William McKinley, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Smith pays close attention to historical context and America's shifting social and values; examines their religious beliefs, commitments, affiliations, and practices; and scrutinizes their relationships with religious leaders and communities. The result is a fascinating account of the ways in which religion has helped shape the course of our history, including such recent events as Harry Truman's decision to recognize Israel, Bill Clinton's promotion of religious liberty and welfare reform, and Barack Obama's policies on poverty and gay rights.In the wake of the 2004 election, pundits were shocked at exit polling that showed that twenty-two percent of voters thought moral values was the most important issue at stake. People on both sides of the political divide believed this was the key to victory for George W. Bush, who professes a deep and abiding faith in God. In fact, the author proves that none of this is new, as religion has been a major component of the presidency since George Washington's first inaugural address. Yet, Americans actually know remarkably little about the faith of the person they elect to the nation's highest office. Questions abound: Was Thomas Jefferson an atheist, as his political opponents charged? What role did Lincoln's religious views play in his handling of slavery and the Civil War? How did born-again Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter lose the support of many evangelicals? Is George W. Bush, as his critics often claim, a captive of the religious right? The author makes his topic quite relevant to American culture as he shows through his individual chapters on each president's personal and political challenges how strongly religious commitments have affected US policy from the presidency of John Adams (1797-1801) to the present. …