The United State of America was founded, because the colonists wanted to escape tyranny and they wanted religious freedom. The Pilgrims came to America from Europe to have religious freedom before the United States was even established. The United States today is home for so many different religions and people who believe different faiths. An episode, from PBS, called “Of God and Caesar” is the sixth and last episode of a series called “God in America” and it goes into how religion can affect politics. Even though it says in the first amendment of the United States constitution that there should be a separation of church and state. The video shows that some beliefs can affect politics and it can affect the agendas some people have while they
…show more content…
In the early 1900’s the evangelicals were not in politics. They believed that the church should stay out of politics, but when the 1960’s happen they felt that America was becoming more secular with all of the drugs and hippies. The event that made the Evangelicals start being involved in politics was in 1973 when the courts decided to legalize abortion. The Catholics were the first to protest the decision, but then the evangelicals started to protest. The ministers even started preaching sermons about abortion, which before these events the evangelical ministers said, ministers should not preach about politics. The first presidential candidate that the evangelicals rallied behind was Ronald Reagan. During his campaign Reagan proposed things that aligned with the evangelicals agenda. For Example, Reagan proposed an amendment that would ban abortions. With help from evangelical voters Ronald Reagan was elected as the 40th President of the United States. The Evangelicals were credited for electing Reagan. President Regan would go on to propose an amendment that would bring back voluntary prayer back in schools. The proposed amendments failed and the Evangelicals felt like Regan didn’t do the things he promised them while he was campaigning. Even though the Evangelicals were disappointed in President Regan’s Presidency, He was a very influential President. Reagan was also a very good speaker. One of his famous lines, as they shown in the video, is when the President said “make America a shining city on a hill”, which means America will set an example and will be looked at by the rest of the
In the early 1900’s the evangelicals were not in politics. They believed that the church should stay out of politics, but when the 1960’s happen they felt that America was becoming more secular with all of the drugs and hippies. The event that made the Evangelicals start being involved in politics was in 1973 when the courts decided to legalize abortion. The Catholics were the first to protest the decision, but then the evangelicals started to protest. The ministers even started preaching sermons about abortion, which before these events the evangelical ministers said, ministers should not preach about politics. The first presidential candidate that the evangelicals rallied behind was Ronald Reagan. During his campaign Reagan proposed things that aligned with the evangelicals agenda. For Example, Reagan proposed an amendment that would ban abortions. With help from evangelical voters Ronald Reagan was elected as the 40th President of the United States. The Evangelicals were credited for electing Reagan. President Regan would go on to propose an amendment that would bring back voluntary prayer back in schools. The proposed amendments failed and the Evangelicals felt like Regan didn’t do the things he promised them while he was campaigning. Even though the Evangelicals were disappointed in President Regan’s Presidency, He was a very influential President. Reagan was also a very good speaker. One of his famous lines, as they shown in the video, is when the President said “make America a shining city on a hill”, which means America will set an example and will be looked at by the rest of the