How corporations created the public symbols of modern Christianity

[phantom power]

Kevin Kruse excerpts his new book on how corporations created the public symbols of modern Christianity as part of their mobilization against the New Deal. It’s a must read, as is no doubt his book:

Back in the 1930s, business leaders found themselves on the defensive. Their public prestige had plummeted with the Great Crash; their private businesses were under attack by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal from above and labor from below. To regain the upper hand, corporate leaders fought back on all fronts. They waged a figurative war in statehouses and, occasionally, a literal one in the streets; their campaigns extended from courts of law to the court of public opinion. But nothing worked particularly well until they began an inspired public relations offensive that cast capitalism as the handmaiden of Christianity.

The two had been described as soul mates before, but in this campaign they were wedded in pointed opposition to the “creeping socialism” of the New Deal. The federal government had never really factored into Americans’ thinking about the relationship between faith and free enterprise, mostly because it had never loomed that large over business interests. But now it cast a long and ominous shadow.

From this alliance between preachers and capitalists comes most of the ideas that right-wing Christians today cite about why this is an overtly Christian nation and why socialism is a sin. It’s toxic and it’s powerful. Kruse pushing the timeline of this alliance back from the 50s into the 30s is really important in understanding its deep roots.

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/03/the-origins-of-modern-christian-symbolism-in-the-united-states

[GreatGazoo]

1. Co-opt the opposition

[cali]

2. that looks really interesting. Thanks!

[pipoman]

3. Yeah, it has nothing to do with 90% of the US population identifying as Christian

For most of the existence of the country. .

[WDIM]

4. Jesus was a communist leftist hippy

He believed in love and peace. He preached against wealth and materialism and debt. He believed you should give all freely and the more you give the more you receive. He preached that you should trust in God to provide all that you need. And that people working and living together as equals and as one people through love we could all live in peace.

There is nothing in the bible that supports the selfish greedy individualism of modern day capitalism.

[phantom power]

7. That was the old Jesus, not shiny Republican Jesus 2.0

[FSogol]

5. Actually it goes back much farther than the 30s. It goes back to the Founding of the Country.

There were 2 places in America where people gathered in public. Churches and taverns. They have always been in strict opposition to each other. The America Revolution grew out of taverns, but once a government was established, they began to regulate taverns while giving free range to Churches.

[world wide wally]

6. Thanks, Fox News