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<h1>The Religious Language In U.S. Foreign Policy</h1>
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<span id="durationCurrent148664283" class="current"></span> <span class="total">[19 min 57 sec]</span>
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<img src="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/03/14/3309247_wide.jpg?t=1331828938&s=4" class="img624 enlarge" title="Historian Andrew Preston says George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were not religious themselves but did see religion as a source of morality." alt="Historian Andrew Preston says George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were not religious themselves but did see religion as a source of morality." width="624"> <div class="captionwrap enlarge">
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Historian
Andrew Preston says George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander
Hamilton were not religious themselves but did see religion as a source
of morality.</p>
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<span class="date">March 15, 2012</span>
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<p>Historian Andrew Preston first became interested
in the overlap between religion and America's foreign policy decisions
while teaching an undergraduate class on American foreign policy in the
days leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.</p> <div class="container con1-5col nobar" id="con148679647">
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<a href="http://www.npr.org/books/titles/147191960/sword-of-the-spirit-shield-of-faith-religion-in-american-war-and-diplomacy"><img src="http://media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/s/sword-of-the-spirit-shield-of-faith/9781400043231_custom.jpg?t=1329840103&s=15" class="img218" title="Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith" alt="Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith" width="218"></a> <div class="captionwrap">
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<h6><a href="http://www.npr.org/books/titles/147191960/sword-of-the-spirit-shield-of-faith-religion-in-american-war-and-diplomacy">Sword Of The Spirit, Shield Of Faith</a></h6>
<p>Religion In American War And Diplomacy</p> <p class="author">by <a href="http://www.npr.org/books/authors/147191965/andrew-preston"><span>Andrew Preston</span></a></p>
"My students took it for granted that [Osama]
bin Laden would use extremist rhetoric, [but] they were more surprised
by [President George W.] Bush's use of religious imagery and religious
rhetoric to explain American foreign policy," Preston tells <em>Fresh Air</em>'s
Terry Gross. "And they asked me if this was unusual in American
history, if presidents turned to religion very often. ... I told them
that I'd find out some more. I said that in general, I thought that
religion didn't play much of a role in U.S. foreign policy."</div></div> <p>But
Preston says he wasn't convinced of his own answer. He decided to
research the topic further, only to find that historians had largely
overlooked the relationship between religion and foreign policy
throughout American history.</p> <p>"And once I
started looking at the documents, once I started looking for religion,
it was everywhere," he says. "And I thought, 'This would be something
I'd like to work on.' "</p> <p>The result is his book <em>Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith</em>,
which traces how religious language has been invoked to support U.S.
foreign policy decisions throughout the country's history and up to the
present day.</p> <p>Preston explains, among other
things, how Abraham Lincoln's use of religious rhetoric during the Civil
War helped influence later humanitarian missions, and how religious
liberty was a major factor for Franklin Delano Roosevelt when thinking
about the U.S. role in World War II.</p> <p>Even
before the country was founded, Preston says, early settlers used their
religious doctrines to frame their thinking. The earliest settlers to
the New World came looking for a haven from religious prosecution, but
also wanted to protect their faith from opponents throughout Europe.</p> <p>"At
various points it looked like it might not survive," he says. "So at
various points, the [early settlers] wanted to bring the Protestant
faith to the New World to keep it safe and let it grow."</p> <div id="res148465972" class="bucketwrap pullquote">
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<p>These people
who founded Massachusetts, they were seeking religious liberty and they
were complaining about the persecutions they suffered in England. And of
course, the first thing they do when they get to Massachusetts is
persecute others and persecute their religion.</p>
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<p class="byline">- Andrew Preston</p>
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<p>The Puritans ended up identifying the protection of their Protestant faith with their own physical security, he says.</p> <p>"They
believed that not only did they have to protect that idea to protect
themselves, but they believed that they had to spread it," he says. "And
by spreading that idea, they would ensure its survival, ensure its
prosperity, and then they would ensure their own survival. And this kind
of exceptionalism has been fairly constant and continuous in American
history."</p> <p>Preston points to the charter of
the Massachusetts Bay Colony — the group that would found the state of
Massachusetts, which clearly states that its primary goal was to "incite
the natives to the knowledge and obedience to the only true God and
savior of mankind."</p> <p>"They had some strong
ideas about their own faith and their own virtue and the virtue of their
own faith," he says. "These people who founded Massachusetts, they were
seeking religious liberty and they were complaining about the
persecutions they suffered in England. And of course, the first thing
they do when they get to Massachusetts is persecute others and persecute
their religion."</p> <p>Since its founding, Preston says, America has seen itself as "God's chosen nation."</p> <p>"It
is a very powerful strand," he says. "Part of it comes from the
Protestant faith that some of the first colonists brought over with
them: a Calvinistic belief in providence that God had a plan for people,
that God had chosen people and that Americans were one of those peoples
— they were God's instrument on Earth to do good and to rid the world
of evil."</p> <p>Preston says he thinks this belief still exists in the country today.</p> <p>"I
think a lot of Americans believe that, and I think it provides a very
strong motivation for people calling for America to act the way it does
in the world," he says. "You can see it in the rhetoric around quite a
few wars. You could see it in the rhetoric in George W. Bush's language
in justifying the war in Iraq. Whether that decision was right or wrong
... I don't take a stand on that, but that sort of idea — that America
is chosen ... was all over Bush's rhetoric. But Bush was certainly not
an aberration in American history. He was actually quite typical."</p><br><a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/03/15/147191935/the-religious-language-in-u-s-foreign-policy">http://www.npr.org/2012/03/15/147191935/the-religious-language-in-u-s-foreign-policy</a><br>
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