The Author of Liberty: Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy

As the U.S. occupation of Iraq dragged on, George W. Bush declared in April 2004 that the United States is “the greatest power on the face of the earth,” and that “we have an obligation to help the spread of freedom. . . . That is what we have been called to do, as far as I’m concerned.” In his inaugural address in January this year, Bush declared that the United States had been given a “mission” by the “Maker of Heaven” and “Author of Liberty” to spread freedom and democracy. And in May, Bush again asserted that encouraging “freedom’s advance” is the “calling of our time. And America will do its duty.”

In these and many other statements, Bush invoked religious ideas to justify U.S. foreign policy: ...