The Influence Of Religious Culture On American Politics

The United States is a multi-religion country with a strong religious color. The influence of religion can almost be found everywhere in America. The currency, national anthem, and oaths sworn in federal courts all make explicit reference to belief in God. The understanding of the relationship between religion and politics is essential to the understanding of American politics.The relationship between religion and politics has been investigated by many scholars. Some of them study religious influence on American political life by investigating the contribution of religious ideas to the formation of basic political values. It is revealed that religious ideas continue to cast a long shadow over the conduct of American political life. The others pay more attention to the religious groups and their role in the shaping of US policy. They point out that religious organizations take an active part in political activities and the voice of religious groups can be heard everywhere.Generally speaking, the previous academic studies focus on the relationship between religion and politics either from the perspective of religious influence on political thoughts or from the perspective of religious interest groups' influence on policymakers. What is less touched upon in previous researches is the investigation into the relationship between American religion and politics by analyzing the religious discourse in American presidential addresses.Political observers have already noticed that there are three correlated notions in President Bush's speeches on foreign affairs, namely, the United States being God's chosen nation, the United States shouldering a mission and being called on by God to reform the world, and the United States fighting on behalf of the just force to eradicate the evil.Is it a paradox that the American Constitution clearly stipulates the separation of church and state while American Presidents constantly use religious terms? Are there any deep-rooted reasons lying behind involvement of religion in politics?To answer these questions, this thesis first inquires into the features of President Bush's religious discourse for breeding anti-Iraq war in light of Foucault's theory of discourse analysis. For the purpose of analysis, all the scriptures of Bush's public speeches concerning the anti-terrorism between 9/11 attacks and anti-Iraq war are collected from the internet, www.whitehousegov/news/releases.After analyzing the features of President Bush's religious discourse, this thesis will discover the deep reasons lying behind Bush's religious discourse in his political speeches from the perspective of social context. Three social factors are taken into consideration: the influence of Puritanism, the influence of American Presidents' religious conviction, and the influence of American people's religious conviction. Finally, the thesis further brings in the notion of American civil religion so that the reason why American Presidents constantly use religious terms in spite of the free exercise clause is cleared.