YOU DON'T HAVE TO AMEND A CONSTITUTION WHERE LIBERTIES ARE A BLESSING:

What Under God's book jacket describes as an "unholy alliance" succeeded, but only in part. This coalition of sometimes strange bedfellows helped elect Eisenhower (and later Richard Nixon and Reagan), but the genial man from the Abilene clapboard house ultimately had no interest in dismantling the New Deal. According to Eisenhower, those who attempted to scrap Social Security, unemployment insurance, and labor laws were "stupid." (Contemporary Republicans might be wise to take note).

Eisenhower did, however, preside over a vigorous assertion of the place of religion in public life. He prayed at his own inaugural, was baptized shortly after taking office, opened cabinet meetings with a time of usually silent prayer, and attended a National Prayer Breakfast organized by Abraham Vereide and Senator Frank Carlson (a Republican from Kansas).

With Eisenhower's support, Congress inserted "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance and placed "In God We Trust" on all currency. Very few Americans opposed such steps. Civil liberties groups were far more worried about the actions of Joseph McCarthy. Many Jews felt they could live with Eisenhower's vague public religiosity. Most Americans did not think the government's general promotion of religion conflicted with the separation of church and state. [...]

Most 19th-century and early-20th-century Americans would have affirmed that the United States was a "Christian nation," even if they would have disagreed bitterly about the meaning of that phrase. Nor were public displays of generic (or even Christian) religiosity new, though they took on new forms during the Eisenhower administration. 

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