Raising eyebrows

I have a lot of questions regarding how we got to where we are today, which can only be answered by examining history and not relying on vague memories and urban legends from grade school. So I read books that could potentially raise some eyebrows. I just started One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America by Kevin Kruse. Did your eyebrows go up at the title?

If his thesis is true, the push for an increase in civil religion in the 50's was not just a response to the Cold War but a fear of Roosevelt's New Deal. Big business did not like the way the country was headed, so they promoted an amalgam of the independent self, Christianity, and capitalism to get the backing of ministers and, in turn, their congregations. In my words, you can worship God and Mammon.¹ I am troubled by what I am reading, not because I think Kruse got it wrong but because he might be right. The church shouldn't be the dupe or the pawn of any political agenda whether right or left. God's kingdom is not of this world, and when people begin to blend them, it results in idolatry.

Here are some quotes from James Fifield, Jr., a theologically liberal and politically conservative minister who was one of the spokesmen for this movement.  His "important innovation was his insistence that Christianity and capitalism were political soul mates, first and foremost." He and his colleagues were "fighting back against the government forces that they believed were threatening capitalism and by extension, Christianity."²

"Every Christian should oppose the totalitarian trends of the New Deal."... "The way out for America is not ahead but back."... "How far back? Back as far as the old Gospel which exalted individuals, which placed responsibility for thought on individuals, and which insisted that individuals should be free spirits under God." ³

Is this the biblical gospel or syncretism? It doesn't sound like the gospel to me.

1. Is this why the prosperity gospel flourishes so well in America?
2. One Nation Under God, Kevin Kruse, Basic Books, 2015, pg. 8.
3. Ibid. pg 12.

(Updated to fix typos and a missing word 10:58 am)