NY Times Letters to the Editor:
Faith, Politics and Lincoln’s Example. Reality check, folks. Lincoln’s zeal was tempered by popular opinion. When an editorialist (of any stripe) starts spouting history, you’d best pull out your baloney detection kit, or go to the library. It doesn’t take much imagination to realize what Southern Christians thought of Mr Lincoln, yet none of these letters reflect this bit of common sense. The framing of the argument seems to have convinced people that all Christians agreed during the Civil War ... not.
Here’s an interesting piece on Religion and Lincoln.
There are few books directly dealing with religion and the Civil War, but here’s one written very close to that time, thanks to the University of Michigan, full-text available online. And a one-page ‘bite’ for you.
That page reinforces Rousseau’s observation, that when religion wields corporate might, it seeks mastery over governments. Violent despotism was his judgment on Christian political history, and a warning for the future.
Now, I’m no expert, but this took me fifteen minutes to research. Imagine what a trip to a local university library would yield. Editorialists need to be more careful with their framing of historical issues to support hot idealogical buttons.
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Nice work.
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