Blog Post #5: Do Onto Others

           In Randall Balmer’s God in the White House, he compares the religious influences on Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon during their presidency in Chapter 2, with a little bit about Gerald Ford at the end. Johnson was not an outspoken, diehard Christian president, but he did follow what Balmer calls the “golden rule” Christianity. His father, Sam Ealy Johnson, taught him to believe “in the dignity of all human beings regardless of race or creed,” while his mother taught him that the strong should be responsible for the weak, and Johnson used both during his time as president of the United States (52). He went on to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and implementing the Great Society in order to give disadvantaged people the privileges and resources that white Americans had been getting for years. Johnson even used the phrase from the Bible “Do unto others as you would have others do onto you,” alongside his presidential seal and his initials. Even though he gained a lot of support from Christian denominations from all over the country when he was reelected, his involvement with the Vietnam War changed their attitudes toward him entirely. Big names from Christian and Catholic Churches were writing to LBJ to peaceful ceasefire in South Vietnam and negotiate with them so American troops could return home safely, all because they thought violent war was not in line with Christ. With all the backlash he got his supposed Christian and Catholic supporters, he finally made an official address to the union about ending the war in Vietnam as well as not running again for president after his term is up.

            Richard Nixon was not openly Christian like Lyndon B. Johnson, but Billy Graham himself kept telling America that he was “a man of deep and abiding faith,” (63). He converted to evangelical Christianity as a young boy and took that into office when he became president of the United States. He initiated worship services to be held in the White House from all different kinds of faiths, not just Christian. Billy Graham was one of the only people to see the piety and moral visions of Nixon, while other Americans thought him to be insecure, isolated, and paranoid when it came to presidential actions. He had a steady polling of support and lots of fund-raising, but his manipulative actions to get reelected president led to the Watergate Scandal, and ultimately the end of his presidency. Both Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon showed strong morals and values of their Christian upbringing in their presidencies, but it worked out differently for both of them. LBJ passed a lot of beneficial legislations during his presidency, but his fault was getting too involved in the Vietnam War. Nixon had strong support system from all kinds of faiths, but his conspiracy and lies ruined his chances at another presidency.