One Day University

Starting with the Puritans, a unique American brand of governance was created that had morality as its centerpiece. They hanged Quakers and “witches,” slaughtered Native Americans, and exiled heretics to Rhode Island-all in the name of God. The Puritans believed their covenant with God legitimized a moral mission, an idea which Morone argues carries on to the present, and created a mentality of “us” versus “them” — that is, of saints versus sinners. This course explores how this puritanical mentality has provided every generation with a new un-American “them” to fear and condemn: immigrants, slaves, Jews, the poor, Communists, terrorists. Has morality in American politics spurred positive changes as well? Today, the American Left has warned of the sudden rise of Evangelism, but is this sort of religious fervor something new to America? Morone will explore these questions and whether true separation of church and state is possible in a “nation with the soul of a church.”