The role religion has played in politics throughout American history has changed depending on the time and the circumstances, according to Dr. Daryl Black and his wife, Dr. Andrea Becksvoort, two historians who teach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Wind the clocks back to the founding of the nation and, according to Dr. Black, and you would find founders who wanted to separate church from government. And with good reason, he said.
Strong ties between the church and the government had dominated European political culture for thousands of years.
“The founders really wanted to make sure that people had the liberty to make choices in their everyday lives,” he said.
At the same time, churches in the Revolutionary War era were used to bring people together and keep people in line. Fast forward to the 19th century and the Whig Party had become the evangelical political party and evangelism became a larger part of political life. The Whigs saw the United States as a “redeemer nation” and saw its progress as a march toward the second coming of Jesus, Dr. Black said.