Civil Religion & Prayer

Whose prayer is America’s prayer? Lincoln’s great second inaugural address exemplified America’s civil religion at its best when he said, “the prayers of both could not be answered . . . the Almighty has his own purposes,” that Americans must “achieve . . . lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” But some historians say an interventionist American civil religion also exists that may not set the example of America as “the city on the hill,” in its own or the world’s eyes.