23. THE TROUBLED 1970s

CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Where did America's political leaders, as defenders of the long-standing Christian social order, take their stand in America's unrelenting move toward Boomer Secular-Humanism – and "democracy by judicial decree"?

Nixon had been raised in a Quaker home, second of five boys, in a very Quaker community (Whittier, California). Nixon's mother was the product of two centuries of Quaker heritage.  However, his Methodist father became a Quaker only in marrying Nixon's mother, and when Nixon was thirteen, he and his father went forward together at a local revival to commit themselves to Christ.  In high school Nixon proved himself to be an excellent student and was awarded his senior year the prestigious Harvard Club prize. But disappointment accompanied all his hard-earned successes.  He lost a hard-fought election for the position as student body president, was never popular with the girls, and his family could not pay the balance of the cost of a Harvard education.¹  So instead he headed off to the local Whittier College.

In his senior year in college, his Christian faith was deeply shaken by his brother's death, and by extensive exploration of the traditions and claims of his Christian faith.  Although he would continue to identify himself as a Christian, and observe rather normal Christian practices, his actual spiritual life from then on would always remain a very private matter.

Receiving a generous scholarship, Nixon headed off to Duke Law School, again doing very well, graduating summa cum laude in 1937.  But with the Depression in full swing, jobs were just not to be found (a Harvard degree would have helped, which Nixon sadly was always aware of) and he returned to his hometown to practice law there.  Here he met and two years later (1940) married a local school teacher, Pat Ryan.

In early 1942, in response to America's entry into World War Two, the Nixons moved to Washington for him to take up a position in the bureaucracy, a job which Nixon ended up hating.  He soon gained entry into the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant junior grade and in mid-1943 was moved closer to the action in the South Pacific. Here he rose quickly in rank as an administrative officer and would serve until the beginning of 1946.  However, he would remain in the Naval Reserves all the way up until he retired at the rank of commander in 1966.

At the beginning of 1946 Nixon was called back to California by the local Republican Party, to take up the electoral campaign for Congress against the Democratic incumbent Jerry Voorhis.  Questioning Voorhis's intelligence and political sympathies (suggesting that they were Communist in nature) he soundly defeated his opponent that November.

In Washington, Nixon was active in his support of the Marshall Plan, and also the investigation into the extent of Communist infiltration into American politics, especially at its highest levels.  In 1948 he took the lead in pushing forward the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigation into the activities of Alger Hiss.  This would begin the problems Nixon would have henceforth with the members of America's intellectual community, who were fully convinced of Hiss's innocence, and angry over what they considered to be Nixon's unwarranted obsession with a "Red Threat" endangering America.  Of course, time would prove that Nixon was entirely correct in the Hiss matter.  And indeed, Nixon was onto the dangers of the rising Cold War long before many other Americans understood the challenges and dangers involved in this new form of ideological battle.

Motivating Nixon was certainly some form of continuing influence of his Quaker upbringing.  Nixon's no-nonsense approach to moral matters formed the very heart of his personal view of life, making him both certain and inflexible in his approach to his public, political life.  But there was also another side to his character, certainly also of Quaker origin, in that he spent much time in the Bible, and in quiet prayer, which he himself stated was to listen to God – not tell God what to do.  In this he was much like his Quaker mother: very strict when it came to ideas of moral performance, but very private when it came to matters of personal faith.

Nixon knew the Bible well, but did not include Biblical references in his public addresses as president.  And although he frequently referenced God, he seldom spoke of Jesus.

Yet he was well-aware of America's Christian history, and in his 1972 Thanksgiving Address underlined the fact that Puritan founder John Winthrop was most correct in identifying America as God's "city set upon a hill," that it was important to follow the Puritan heritage in being "the light of the world," and that it had always been America's call by God, and source of the country's greatness, to provide spiritual leadership to that world.  He also stated that every American president had found cause to turn to God, ultimately leaving office with a very deep religious faith.

As president, Nixon often held worship services in the White House, with a variety of pastors of all faiths (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish) leading the various services. It served several purposes: cutting down the uproar of press, protesters and just the curious that accompanied his Sunday attendance at local churches; setting some kind of religious tone to life in the White House; and, of course, helping his political image among his many Christian supporters nationwide.²

Perhaps even more significant in defining the religious character of the Nixon presidency was the close relationship Nixon cultivated with the "power of positive thinking" pastor Norman Vincent Peale of New York City's Marble Collegiate Church, but even more importantly the evangelist Billy Graham, with whom Nixon developed a close friendship, perhaps the closest of all.  They met, discussed, prayed together constantly.  But ultimately that friendship would have to pay a huge price for the scandal that ultimately broke Nixon, indeed, broke many of the Nixon circle: Watergate.

Because ultimately what will always bring Americans to measure Nixon as a Christian was Watergate, from Nixon's vulgar language and commentaries on America's various social groups, to ultimately his effort to cover up the whole mess of the break-in.

It is a bit reminiscent of the Biblical King David, Israel's most beloved king, who was caught by the prophet Nathan trying to cover up his affair with Bathsheba, and the depth David was willing to go (having her loyal husband killed in battle) in the affair, in order to also cover up the birth of the child that developed out of this misadventure.  Both Nixon's and David's crises pointed to a problem that has never been resolved by man – how so easily tremendous power in the hands of a fully sovereign ruler can come to destroy the integrity of that same individual. David repented; Nixon resigned.  Both lived on after that.  But the favor they had once enjoyed (Nixon's 60 percent vote in 1972, for instance) would be forever ruined after that.  Worse, Nixon is still today not really remembered for all the ways he served his country extremely well as president.  It seems instead that he will always be remembered by generations to come as Nixon, the evil president.

¹They needed that money to pay for the health care of Nixon's ailing older-brother Harold, who died of tuberculosis in 1933 (as had a younger brother Arthur in 1925) – leaving Nixon deeply shattered over his brothers' deaths.

²In 1973 the atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair tried to get a federal court to shut down these White House services.