How has religious belief shaped American history? What role have religious ideas and spiritual experience played in shaping the social, political, and cultural life of what has become the world’s most religiously diverse nation? "God In America," a presentation of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE and FRONTLINE, will explore the historical role of religion in the public life of the United States. The six-hour series interweaves documentary footage, historical dramatization and interviews with religious historians.
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"Soul Of A Nation"
The fifth hour explores the post-World War II era, when rising evangelist, Billy Graham, tried to inspire a religious revival that fused faith with patriotism in a Cold War battle with "Godless Communism." As Americans flocked in record numbers to houses of worship, non-believers and religious minorities appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of religious expression in public schools. And civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a modern-day prophet calling upon the nation to honor both biblical teachings and the founders' democratic ideals of equal justice.
The final hour explores the religious and political aspirations of conservative evangelicals' moral crusade over divisive social issues like abortion and gay marriage. Across America, the religious marketplace expanded as new waves of immigrants from Asia, the Middle East and Latin America made the United States the most religiously diverse nation. The 2008 presidential election brought the re-emergence of a religious voice in the Democratic Party, bringing the country to a new plateau in its struggle to reconcile faith with politics. "God in America" closes with reflections on the role of faith in the public life of the country.
"God In America: A New Adam/A New Eden" aired Monday, October 11, 2010 at 9 p.m.
"God In America: A Nation Reborn/A New Light" aired Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at 9 p.m.
