The Bible in American Law and Politics. John R. Vile
to the Slaves of the United States,” 1843)
Grimke, Angelina
Grimke, Sarah M. (An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States)
Reparations for Slavery and Segregation
Segregation and Anti-miscegenation Laws
Slavery
Speeches
Clinton, Bill (Speech of Contrition at National Prayer Breakfast)
Douglass, Frederick
Lincoln, Abraham (Gettysburg Address)
Lincoln, Abraham (House Divided Speech)
Lincoln, Abraham (Second Inaugural Address)
Obama, Barack (A Call to Renewal)
Obama, Barack (Eulogy for Senator Clementa Pinckney)
Symbols
Eagle as American Symbol
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Great Seal of the United States
Liberty Bell
Redeemer Nation
U.S. Flag
Women’s Rights
Crocker, Hannah Mather
Grimke, Sarah M. (Letters on the Equality of the Sexes)
Hutchinson, Anne
Woman’s Bible (Stanton)
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Introduction
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This volume follows four prior reference books that I have recently authored relative to American symbols. The first was on the U.S. flag, the second on the Declaration of Independence, the third on the Liberty Bell, and the fourth on the national anthem. Whereas these prior books dealt with symbols that were distinctive to America, I recognize that the United States has no monopoly on the Bible or its interpretation. By the same token, I believe that American uses of the Bible can cast significant light on both its history and its self-understanding, particularly during the colonial, founding, and antebellum years.
The Role of the Bible in America
In reviewing Donald S. Lutz’s survey of political literature in America from 1760 to 1805, Professor Daniel Dreisbach of American University observes that the Bible was “cited more frequently than any European writer or even any European school of thought such as the Enlightenment or Whig intellectual tradition” (Dreisbach 2014, 146). He further observes that an examination of inventories of individuals who died in the eighteenth century indicates that “the Bible was the most accessible book in late-eighteenth-century America” (147). Professor Mark David Hall of George Fox University notes that “Connecticut required families to own Bibles, and it demanded that towns have schools so that citizens would be able to read them” (2013, 32). Moreover, however much biblical literacy has declined in recent years, Americans remain a religious people, and much current political debate can be related either directly or indirectly to biblical themes. A Museum of the Bible now draws many visitors near the national mall in Washington, DC, while the American Bible Society has recently opened an exhibition on the Bible near Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the nation was born and its constitution formulated.
I realize that a volume on the Bible in American law and politics merely scratches the surface with regard to the role of the Bible in American life and, indeed, in Western civilization. The Torah and other Hebrew writings that Christians call the Old Testament were the foundation of Jewish life and culture. The Bible, expanded to include the New Testament, is the basis of Christianity. Islam also draws many of its stories from the Bible, especially as orally transmitted (Griffith 2013). The Protestant Reformation was based on the doctrine of sola scriptura, or the belief that the Bible alone was the only sure guide to Christian life and practice, a conviction that Puritans brought with them to North America. Biblical scenes have been the subject of numerous works of art, the Bible has inspired and been the subject of many musical compositions, and cultural manifestations are as pervasive as Gideon Bibles in motel rooms; the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky; the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando, Florida; the Bible Museum in Washington, DC (see Bielo “Materializing xxvithe Bible”); WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelets and the corresponding HWLV (He Would Love First) on the arms of teenagers; bumper stickers (“God said it, I believe it, that settles it”); cartoons; T-shirts; and the like.
Most people who read the Bible probably do not go there chiefly to settle political or legal issues, and most readers likely revere the Bible less because of persuasive arguments on its behalf or because of its perceived connection to American law and politics than for the comfort and inspiration they find for their daily lives. It has even been reported that as he approached the end of his life, W. C. Fields, who had a reputation for dissolute behavior, began reading the Bible in order to look for loopholes! From a more serious standpoint, many people, especially Protestant evangelicals, are likely to view the key doctrines of their faith as grounded on the Bible.
The Author’s Experience with the Bible
In filling out a questionnaire connected to this book, I was asked to list all the contributors. I listed myself both as the “sole” author and the “soul” author because, as much as any of my works, I have put both heart and soul into this book. If readers will permit me to transition from pun to oxymoron, I consider the subjects of the volume to be transcendently practical.
As a child of Protestant Christian parents whose original intention was to be foreign missionaries and whose lives were structured around their faith, I remember singing the words and sounding out the letters of the Bible to a chorus that said,
The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes, that’s the book for me!
I stand alone on the Word of God,
The B-I-B-L-E!
In singing “Jesus Loves Me,” I further learned that this great truth was grounded in the knowledge that “the Bible tells me so.” Yet another song that we sang, reflecting Psalm 119:105, suggested that “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path always” and observed that learning Scripture was important “that I might not sin; that I might sin against Thee.”
Almost any time my parents sent a card or signed a guest book, whether for a wedding funeral, open house, or other occasion, they left a reference to a Bible verse, a practice I have followed with what I hope will be considered good humor (it’s actually a verse my mother has cited to me a number of times) in this volume. A friend told me about a woman who had forgotten what favorite verse she had taken upon her Lutheran confirmation and called her sister only to be told that it was Proverbs 26:11, which more refined readers may prefer not to read!
In addition to its moral and religious guidance, as I grew older I realized that the Bible was also sometimes regarded as a guide to the future or even as an object of magic. On the last days of the many revival meetings that I attended as a boy, evangelists explained that Russia, China, and the United States were all the subjects of such biblical books as Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation and that xxviinations were even then preparing for the final battle of Armageddon. By the time a representative of the Gideons came to church to tell how a soldier in Vietnam was miraculously