Michael Kazin Responds

Susan Jacoby writes under a misconception. I did not advocate that all American progressives should justify their politics by referring to the Sermon on the Mount or other biblical passages that imply that God is just. Rather, my point was that Christian activists and politicians have always done so. For much of U.S. history, their faith and their rhetoric often served causes we can still applaud—the abolition of slavery, the rights of labor and women and Native Americans, opposition to militarism, and more. But since the Second World War, with the exception of the black freedom movement, evangelical zeal has mostly benefited the right.