The Bible in American Law and Politics. John R. Vile
private undertaking” (“Bible ‘Airlift’ Lauded” 1953).
In 1951, President Harry S. Truman had created the Psychological Strategy Board (PSB), which included the use of religious appeals in combating “godless” communism (Herzog 2012, 55–56). Eisenhower had continued this approach, which had included operating 165 “information centers” around the world for foreigners. One scholar notes, “Ample quantities of the Bible began arriving, along with subscriptions to religious periodicals like Christian Century, Commonweal, and Commentary. The State Department also sent periodic religious news dispatches to its embassies, complete with analyses of each event’s implications for Communists. The Voice of America (VOA) enlisted the aid of religious leaders, who broadcast messages into nations under Communist control” (Herzog 2012, 56–57).
Consistent with this emphasis, Congress added the words “under God” to the pledge to the U.S. flag in 1954.
In addition to the Bible Balloon Project, numerous private religious organizations in the United States and in Western European nations sought to smuggle Bibles into the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations, although their efforts were often exaggerated (Boel 2014; Gouverneur 2007).
Apparently, balloons and smuggling are currently both being used to smuggle books into communist North Korea (McKay 2017).
See also Communism and Anti-Communism; Under God
57
For Reference and Further Reading
“Balloon Barrage Grows.” New York Times, August 19, 1951.
“Bible ‘Airlift’ Lauded.” New York Times, September 5, 1953.
Boel Bent. 2014. “Bible Smuggling and Human Rights in the Cold War.” Transnational Anti-Communism and the Cold War: Agents, Activities, and Networks, ed. Luc van Dongen, Stephanie Roulin, and Giles Scott-Smith. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 263–75.
Gouverneur, Joe. 2007. “Underground Evangelism: Missions during the Cold War.” Transformation 24 (April): 80–86.
Herzog, Jonathan P. 2012. “From Sermon to Strategy: Religious Influence on the Formation and Implementation of US Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War.” Religion and the Cold War: A Global Perspective, ed. Philip E. Muehlenbeck. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, pp. 44–64.
Jordan, Richard Lawrence. 2013. The Second Coming of Paisley: Militant Fundamentalism and Ulster Politics. New York: Syracuse University Press.
McKay, Hollie. 2017. “Operation Bible Smuggling: How Christian Texts Infiltrate North Korea.” World. October 9.
“Reds Shoot at Balloons.” New York Times, August 28, 1951.
Bible Burnings
One way to express one’s disgust with a writing is to burn it. Burning manuscripts dates far back into antiquity, with some such burnings being intentional and others simply the result of war (Boissoneault 2017). The burnings of the library at Alexander in 48 BC and AD 640 are similar to recent attempts to destroy libraries in Mali and Timbuktu in 2012.
The First Amendment to the Constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, but it does not prevent individuals from burning holy books that they own any more than it would prevent them from burning flags. Early in the twentieth century, however, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice headed by Anthony Comstock (1844–1915) often burned books that they considered to be pornographic.
The emotional effect of burning a holy book can be particularly intense, and may thus draw disproportionate attention. There was a strong outcry when, in 2008, the U.S. military burned Bibles at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan for fear that they would be used to proselytize Muslims in violation of military protocols (Starnes 2012).
The Catholic Church sometimes burned books along with heretics, including individuals like Giordano Bruno and Jan Hus, the former for his Copernican cosmology, and the latter for his attack on such practices as the giving of indulgences (Boissoneault 2017). They sometimes also burned translations other than the Latin Vulgate.
In 2009, the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina, announced that it was going to burn English translations other than the King James Version of the Bible on Halloween. They also planned to burn books by other Christian authors such as Billy Graham, Rick Warren, and others (Chivers 2009).
In 2012, Terry Jones, the pastor of the Dove World Outreach Church in Florida, who had previously stopped early attempts, publicly burned a Koran 58to protest the Iranian imprisonment of a Christian pastor, Youcef Nadarkhani (Sheridan 2012).
See also Fundamentalists; Pornography
For Reference and Further Reading
Boissoneault, Lorraine. 2017. “A Brief History of Book Burning, from the Printing Press to Internet Archives.” Smithsonian. August 31. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/brief-history-book-burning-printing-press-internet-archives-180964697/.
Chivers, Tom. 2009. “North Carolina Church Plans Halloween Bible Burning.” Telegraph. October 16. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/6346662/North-Carolina-church-plans-Halloween-Bible-burning.html.
Corn-Revere. Robert. 2014. “Bonfires of Insanity: A History of Book Burnings from Nazis to ISIS.” Daily Beast. February 28 [updated April 14, 2017]. https://www.thedailybeast.com/bonfires-of-insanity-a-history-of-book-burnings-from-nazis-to-isis.
Sheridan, Michael. 2012. “Florida Pastor Terry Jones Burns Copies of Koran outside Church.” New York Daily News. April 29. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/florida-pastor-terry-jones-burns-copies-koran-church-article-1.1069458.
Starnes, Todd. 2012. “The Day the U.S. Military Burned the Bible in Afghanistan.” Fox News. March 2 [updated May 7, 2015]. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/the-day-the-us-military-burned-the-bible-in-afghanistan. Accessed March 31, 2019.
Bible Signings
In March 2019, President Donald J. Trump signed Bibles at an Alabama church where he visited victims of a recent tornado.
The practice was not new to Trump, although he may have taken it up a notch by signing on the outside cover rather than on the inside. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the family Bible of Frank Murphy after he took his oath as U.S. attorney general. President Ronald Reagan signed a Bible that he sent to Iranian officials in 1986. Other presidents who are