The Bible in American Law and Politics. John R. Vile

1879 Henry George publishes Progress and Poverty advocating a single land tax. 1880 Founding of the American branch of the Salvation Army. 1881 First publication of the Revised Version of the Bible in America. 1883 Mary Baker Eddy publishes her Key to the Scriptures, which becomes the basis of Christian Science. 1890 Wilford Woodruff, the LDS president, says that God had instructed him that his church should abandon polygamy. 1891 The Blackstone Petition is presented to President Harrison, calling upon him to call a conference in support of resettling the Jewish in Palestine. 1893 The Anti-Saloon League is formed. 1896 Utah, whose entry had been long delayed by concern over prior Mormon beliefs in polygamy, is admitted as the forty-fifth state after its leaders renounce this doctrine. 1898 Numerous pastors view the Spanish-American War as a way of fulfilling America’s destiny to spread liberty and Christianity. 1899 The Gideons are founded in Janesville, Wisconsin, for the purpose of distributing copies of the Bible for free. 1901 Publication of the American Standard Version of the Bible, revising King James. 1906 Sermons by William J. Seymour initiate the Azusa Street revivals in southern California. 1909 The publication of the Scofield Reference Bible, the notes to which furthered the ideas of premillennial dispensationalism. 1910–1915 Princeton University professors and others publish a twelve-volume collection known as The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth that lays the basis for American fundamentalism. 1917 The United States enters World War I on the side of the Allies. The Jewish Publication Society publishes a translation of the Hebrew Bible into English. xxxviii1919 The Eighteenth Amendment provides for national alcoholic prohibition. American fundamentalists, convened by William Bell Riley, gather in Philadelphia to form the World’s Christian Fundamentals Association. 1920 The Nineteenth Amendment, prohibiting discrimination against women in voting, is adopted. 1923 Professor Edgar J. Goodspeed of the University of Chicago publishes the first so-called American version of the New Testament but is widely criticized for using idioms. 1925 The Scopes Trial highlights the widening gaps between American fundamentalism and liberalism. 1929 The collapse of the stock market signals the beginning of the Great Depression. 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first presidential inaugural address. 1941 President Roosevelt proclaims the week of Thanksgiving to be National Bible Week. 1945 The dropping of two atomic bombs on Japanese cities provides a prototype for another way that the world might one day end. 1947 First publication of the Revised Standard Version of the New Testament in the United States. 1948 The modern state of Israel is created and is quickly recognized by President Harry S. Truman. This development stirs increased millennial expectations. 1950 L. Ron Hubbard first publishes his Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. 1952 Publication of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible is endorsed by the National Council of Churches. 1953 The first National Prayer Breakfast is held. 1954 Congress adds the words “Under God” to the pledge to the American flag. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that racial discrimination violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 1960 John F. Kennedy becomes the first Roman Catholic to be elected as U.S. president. 1962 The U.S. Supreme Court declares that public devotional prayer is unconstitutional in state-supported schools. 1963 President John F. Kennedy is assassinated. The U.S. Supreme Court outlaws devotional readings of the Bible in public schools. 1966 The American Bible Society publishes Today’s English Version of the Bible, the New Testament part of which is entitled Good News for Modern Man. xxxix1967 Israel defeats an Arab attack and takes new territory including Jerusalem, sparking hopes among evangelical Christians that they might rebuild the temple and hasten the second coming of Christ. 1970 Hal Lindsey publishes The Late Great Planet Earth, stirring renewed millennial expectations. 1973 The U.S. Supreme Court legalizes most abortions in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. 1974 President Richard M. Nixon resigns from office after impeachment proceedings begin in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. 1976 The United States celebrates the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence. Jimmy Carter defeats Gerald Ford for the presidency. Newsweek magazine declares 1976 to be the “Year of the Evangelical.” 1977 Dr. James Dobson creates Focus on the Family. 1979 Rev. Jerry Falwell founds the Moral Majority, designed to support conservative causes. 1983 President Ronald Reagan delivers his “Evil Empire” Speech. President Reagan, at congressional request, declares the Year of the Bible. 1985 The Jewish Publication Society publishes a translation of the Hebrew Bible into English called the Tanakh. 1986 President Ronald Reagan inscribes a Bible for Oliver North to deliver to Iranians with whom he was negotiating the sale of weapons in exchange for the release of hostages in Lebanon. 1987 The United States celebrates the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. 2008 Barack Obama becomes the first African American to be elected as president of the United States. 2012 Republicans nominate Mitt Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, for president, but he