Give me that old time civil religion

The following are quotes from Surge of Piety: Norman Vincent Peale and the Remaking of American Religious Life by Christopher Lane, Yale University Press, 2016. I had gotten the book after reading this review at The Gospel Coalition. I was hoping it would give me some insight into the mind-meld between conservative Evangelicals and politics. The reviewer suspects there is a connection between Peale's teaching and President Trump. While that may be true, I am more interested in Peale's influence on the average professing Evangelical and the morphing of Christianity into "God, self, and country," which is civil religion in a nut shell. As to who "God" is, I think He is left conveniently vague enough to satisfy anyone's agenda. Amy Mantravadi just wrote a post on The Ascent of Trump and Impact on Evangelical Ethics.  It is spot on. Her post is the main reason, why I finally started reading about Peale.  As the Bible says, there is nothing new under the sun.

His friends and supporters ranged from conservative pastors, corporate leaders, and federal agencies to the nation's highly devout commander chief, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Peale's affinity with such natural allies helped to make anti-communism - and, subsequently, much of positive thinking and significant currents in psychiatry - fervently pro-Christian. Together these factors transformed the nation  and its religious life. They reassigned health and well-being as categories "under God," and success as the consequence of strongly religious conviction. All the while and quite predictably, public religiosity rose to stratospheric levels. pgs. 3-4.

As the historian, Ira Katznelson observes, "Fear about warfare and global violence became a permanent condition. It became an inextricable part of American consciousness. What was needed, Peale and others believed, were ways to bring "energy to despair." To restore a sense of security and unite the country in its beliefs. In framing his message as one of essential faith in God, self, and country, the author of "The Power of Positive Thinking" assured the nation that it would not merely be "inoculated" against communism, it would be braced with "enthusiasm for Christian world conquest." pgs. 4-5

Our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious belief, and I don't care what it is. ~ President Dwight Eisenhower pgs. 8-9.