There are those who would say America was founded in large part by secret societies, and point to symbols and mottoes, on, say, the dollar bill as evidence of this. The nation's capital city, these ones contend, contains monuments and an architectural layout steeped in ancient Egyptian religion. And what of the Founding Fathers? True, common belief has it that a few of these patriotic paters were self-identifying Christians, whereas others make the claim that some if not most of these men were so only nominally, that they were members of covert orders more than anything else, who believed in an orphic destiny underlying the New World. All rather arcane musings, which GOD IN AMERICA quite surprisingly makes no mention of, whatsoever. It's all very linear and temporal and, arguably, selective in its historical telling. Despite its strictly straightforward and prosaic presentation, however, the doc is quite engaging and in some respects educational, nevertheless.
The idea that America is a providential nation dates back long before political TV ministers and the Moral Majority entered the picture. Seen here is evangelist Billy Graham speaking out against a particular (invasive) ideology. It was here, during the Cold War period, when faith and patriotism re-emerged as a union, as the threat of atheist Communism is what had led to the advent of Christian fundamentalism. GOD IN AMERICA goes back farther in time, tracing the religion-and-politics relationship all the way to the Puritans who first settled in America.
The first two parts of this lengthy six-part documentary devotes itself to highlighting this early period of pilgrims and pioneers and of a few Protestants who by way of quill and inkhorn sought to make a case for a theocratic nation. Then along came the Founding Fathers, with their emphasis on the separation of church and state and the freedom to practice a denomination or religion of one's choice.
GOD IN AMERICA begins with the attempted conversion of native Indians on the part of a few Spanish Catholics and continues up through the 19th and 20th centuries, to when the Lord's prayer was removed from public schools. As is noted in the film, there was a time when the building of a strong moral nation was thought to begin with teaching children values and virtues, based on Christian principles, within the classroom.
In another documentary I watched recently was discussed subject matter that had me thinking of this one. Its premise was that America was founded by occultists more so than Christians, and that even down to our present day there are practitioners of Wicca, paganism and Luciferianism in high positions of government, in a nation also comprised of celebrity deification, goddess worship, and moral relativism.
God? Make that plural.
Really, who's to say America doesn't have its own nonphysical principalities governing things from behind the scenes, as the Good Book alludes to their being such intelligent forces in regard to other and past world powers?
The idea that America is a providential nation dates back long before political TV ministers and the Moral Majority entered the picture. Seen here is evangelist Billy Graham speaking out against a particular (invasive) ideology. It was here, during the Cold War period, when faith and patriotism re-emerged as a union, as the threat of atheist Communism is what had led to the advent of Christian fundamentalism. GOD IN AMERICA goes back farther in time, tracing the religion-and-politics relationship all the way to the Puritans who first settled in America.
The first two parts of this lengthy six-part documentary devotes itself to highlighting this early period of pilgrims and pioneers and of a few Protestants who by way of quill and inkhorn sought to make a case for a theocratic nation. Then along came the Founding Fathers, with their emphasis on the separation of church and state and the freedom to practice a denomination or religion of one's choice.
GOD IN AMERICA begins with the attempted conversion of native Indians on the part of a few Spanish Catholics and continues up through the 19th and 20th centuries, to when the Lord's prayer was removed from public schools. As is noted in the film, there was a time when the building of a strong moral nation was thought to begin with teaching children values and virtues, based on Christian principles, within the classroom.
In another documentary I watched recently was discussed subject matter that had me thinking of this one. Its premise was that America was founded by occultists more so than Christians, and that even down to our present day there are practitioners of Wicca, paganism and Luciferianism in high positions of government, in a nation also comprised of celebrity deification, goddess worship, and moral relativism.
God? Make that plural.
Really, who's to say America doesn't have its own nonphysical principalities governing things from behind the scenes, as the Good Book alludes to their being such intelligent forces in regard to other and past world powers?