The Bible in American Law and Politics. John R. Vile

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СКАЧАТЬ of our teachings, and yet I do not ever remember either story being applied, as it surely was being applied in black churches and some more theological liberal Protestant churches, to the African American struggle for racial justice, which we often associated with communists and other outside agitators.

      As a Protestant Christian who has been teaching Sunday school lessons from the Bible for about forty years and preparing weekly sermons from the Bible for almost twenty, I remain deeply committed to the Bible as a sure guide to faith and practice. As a political scientist, I am also fascinated by the manner in which individuals have interpreted the Bible throughout our history. Moreover, as biblical literacy has declined, I am concerned that Americans may be increasingly unaware of the manner in which biblical themes, as well as specific chapters and verses, and arguments about them, have shaped our own heritage. Perhaps we are now in the position of Europeans about whom Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1781 when he explained, “It was not necessary in New England, where everybody reads the Bible, and is acquainted with Scripture phrases, that you should note the texts from which you took them; but I have observed in England, as well as in France, that verses and expressions taken from the sacred writings and not known to be such, appear very strange and awkward to some readers; and I shall therefore in my edition take the liberty of marking the quoted texts in the margins” (Hall 2019, 30).

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      I am reminded of scholars who for many years missed many of the biblical references in George Washington’s thought because he rarely cited chapter and verse, and they didn’t recognize his expressions as biblical. In David Daniell’s magnificent study of the Bible in English, after mentioning the “Bible-blindness of so many scholars,” he cites a 650-page collection of documents from the Great Awakening from two eminent scholars, who admit that they have removed without notice what they considered to be “a superfluity of Scriptural citations” (2003, 552). In a similar vein, during the administration of George W. Bush, evangelicals throughout the nation often recognized biblical allusions in his speeches long before commentators at the New York Times and other mainstream sources did so. It was almost as though he were talking in a language that they did not understand (Berlinerblau 2013, 211). Illustrating yet a different problem, there are any number of books that seek to prove that America is a Christian nation, that its laws are founded on the Ten Commandments, or that most, if not all, American founders were Christians, simply by stringing together quotations from laws, cases, or prominent individuals from American history without regard to context or possible political motivations.

       Rhetorical Uses of the Bible

      In his classic study of the use of the Bible during the American founding era, Professor Daniel Dreisbach observes that it was used then, as it has been used since, for a variety of purposes. Acknowledging that his own list is overlapping and not intended to be exhaustive, Dreisbach cites five such uses that he thinks have been particularly prominent. They are:

      (1) To enrich a common language and cultural vocabulary through distinctively biblical allusions, phrases, figures of speech, symbols, proverbs, aphorisms, and the like; (2) to enhance the power and weight of rhetoric through its identification with a venerated, authoritative text; (3) to identify and define normative standards and transcendent rules for ordering and judging public life; (4) to illuminate the role of Providence in the affairs of men and nations and, specifically, America’s place in providential history; and (5) to gain insights into the character and designs of God, especially as they pertain to His dealings with humankind. (Dreisbach 2017, 72–73)

      In a caution that would arguably apply to any period in American history, after illustrating each of these uses, Dreisbach warns against “a misunderstanding of the Scripture’s role in the discourse of the founders” (2017, 93). He thus notes, “To interpret biblical language as purely stylistic or rhetorical . . . could lead to the cynical conclusion that the founders employed the Bible only for temporal political advantage and that their invocations of the Bible were merely playing to the prejudices of bible-reading people” (93). Likewise, the opposite error is “to read all invocations of biblical language as direct, literal appeals to transcendent, divine claims,” which he believes “ignores the nature of political rhetoric and could lead to an erroneous conclusion that the founders were driven by a theocratic, even messianic, vision of America” (93).

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      In a study of the early republic, John F. Berens warns that “one element in the political rhetoric of the era was the employment of providential concepts for partisan ends,” which he attributes to both major political parties of the day (1978, 10).

      Through writing this volume, I have become increasingly cognizant of the need to interpret the Bible, and references to the Bible, with great care. I recognize both that an individual proof text or texts may often be in tension or conflict with larger biblical themes and that larger themes may often require more than a reference to a single text or texts. During the Trump administration, I have also been perplexed at the manner in which individuals whom I had previously believed to be faithful to biblical principles of civility and righteousness in governmental leaders were so seemingly willing to discard or ignore them for a taste of political power or the achievement of immediate policy objectives.

      Apart from such observations, and arguably in contrast to the Bible itself, this book has no grand theme other than that of demonstrating the pervasiveness of biblical citation and argumentation throughout American history. If, as I believe, the Bible is true, and certain understandings of its text are more accurate and more in tune with God’s will than others, then many of these interpretations have been wrong if for no other reason than that they have been contradictory. No one appears to have understood this better than President Lincoln, who recognized that citizens of the North and the South read the same Bible and prayed to the same God while coming to radically different conclusions about their application to slavery. As I have written this book, I have sought to cultivate what I consider to be Lincoln’s own humility in recognizing that it is not always possible to ascertain God’s designs but that we remain obligated to pursue them with the best understanding that we can and that such understanding often begins with careful study of the Bible.

      In reflecting on the Museum of the Bible, Professor Richard Gamble has observed that although most historians have asked “what impact the Bible has had on American history,” if they asked instead “what Americans did to the Bible, they would uncover a story filled with active players who have quoted, interpreted, reinterpreted, and applied the Bible” (Gamble 2019, 242). This book is an attempt to illustrate both how the Bible has influenced America and how Americans have interpreted, and sometimes misinterpreted, the Bible. I think it is important to heed the warning of Paul Hanson that a study of the Bible suggests “that political strategies will continue to avoid static imposition of a timeless blueprint and instead justify political positions on the basis of the criterion of their adequacy in representing God’s governance of justice and mercy within specific historical and geographical settings” (2010, 25).

       Organization of This Book

      I have organized this book, like my other four recent reference books, alphabetically so that readers can quickly find essays on topics of interest. I have included references and suggestions for further reading in each essay as well as cross references to further essays. This book includes a timeline, a topical table xxxof contents, a massive bibliography, and both a general index and an index to specific Bible chapters and verses that I have cited.

       Key Topics

      As its title suggests, the two most prominent topics of this book seek to relate the Bible to American law and politics. Each of these topics is quite broad, but many essays fall СКАЧАТЬ