The fall of the D.C. WASP
The religious historian Sidney Ahlstrom, who wielded an enormous amount of influence over me in college despite being unaware of my existence, wrote in the early 1970s that the election of John F. Kennedy marked the end of the American theocracy.
Prior to that, every American president had to make a semi-plausible claim to Protestant status. It could be said — although of course not by me — that this was made easier by the relatively low demands of Protestantism.
There are, of course, high-demand versions of Protestantism, some of which require adherents to embrace the principles of the Synod of Dort and others of which require believers to handle live poisonous snakes. I’m not advocating for one or the other, but the snakes are much more cut-and-dried, as propositions go.
Sign up to get Colin’s newsletter delivered to your inbox, for free
Other expressions of Protestantism are closer in spirit to what clothing catalogues call “relaxed fit.” There have been a number of “Protestant” presidents whose record of church attendance has been spotty at best. I believe we had one such president very recently.
Ahlstrom was right about the theocracy. Here in Connecticut, there was an official state religion until 1818, 30 years after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. It was Congregationalism, in the form of those big white austere churches on town greens. Very similar to today’s Congregationalist churches where the laity sometimes writes its own creed and gets very competitive about chocolate chip cookie recipes, except nothing like that at all.
People forget that the phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution but originates from a letter President Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Baptists of Danbury who were chafing from their second rate and “degrading” status under Connecticut law, where their religious privileges were treated as “favors granted” and not inalienable rights.
Ahlstrom was wrong about the end of the theocracy. After Kennedy, another 60 years would pass before the Protestant grip on the White House would again be loosened.
Joe Biden is not Kennedy, who ran while barraged with anti-Catholic slings and arrows. His chief attackers were the Rev. Billy Graham and the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale. It wasn’t subtle. Peale: “Faced with the election of a Catholic, our culture is at stake.”
Peale’s argument was that, forced to choose, JFK would choose the Vatican over our republic. Peale’s church was the only one that Donald Trump (while a young man) ever really attended which may explain why, while running against the persuasively devout Biden, Trump lapsed into Tarzan-Frankenstein diction to say, “No religion, no anything. Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God.”
As a matter of political survival (and probably as a matter of preference), JFK had to downplay his religion. Biden was under no such burden and therefore had a very Catholic inauguration, beginning with Mass in the morning and moving to an opening prayer by a Jesuit and tucking in a quote from St. Augustine, whom the president
Hence, I’m amused by the fall (or post-cocktail stumble) of the WASP. The president is Catholic and so is Speaker of the House. The Senate Majority Leader is Jewish. The Supreme Court is 2/3 Catholic and 2/9 Jewish, and then there’s Gorsuch who was brought up Catholic but married an Englishwoman who made him Anglican.
called “a saint in my church,” about how “a people” can be understood as “a multitude defined the objects of their love.”
The actual quote — from “The City of God” — is worth tracking down because it’s way more layered — and cooler — than what Biden conveyed. If we’re going to think of societies that way, says Augustine, then we should acknowledge that the better the objects (of love), the better the people.
A people defined by their love of tacky opulence, overpriced hotels and golf courses — I’m just randomly pulling examples out of thin air here — will be inferior to a people defined by their love of justice and poetry. Is the general idea.
Maybe I should press pause and say I am not a Catholic. My father was kicked out of the church at age 14 and was featured in its Most Promising Heretics Under 20 encyclical.
My life has been defined by a love of religion without lasting membership in any particular one.
Hence, I’m amused by the fall (or post-cocktail stumble) of the WASP. The president is Catholic and so is Speaker of the House. The Senate Majority Leader is Jewish. The Supreme Court is 2/3 Catholic and 2/9 Jewish, and then there’s Gorsuch who was brought up Catholic but married an Englishwoman who made him Anglican.
The vice president is a Black Baptist and the daughter of a Hindu father. She is married to a Jewish man. They smashed the glass underfoot at their wedding, and then she went back to smashing glass ceilings.
The pivotal Georgia Senate election was won by a Jew and a Black Baptist pastor.
This is powerful change. For Jefferson, it probably would have represented more bacon than the pan can handle. Which is why in 2028, we should put a vegan in the White House.
Colin McEnroe’s column appears every Sunday, his newsletter comes out every Thursday and you can hear his radio show every weekday on WNPR 90.5. Email him at colin@ctpublic.org. Sign up for his newsletter at http://bit.ly/colinmcenroe.