Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Christian and a Democrat

Of all the myriad intersections between religion and politics in the United States, perhaps none is at once so significant and so personal as that occurring within the heart and mind of the nation’s executive. Though all U.S. presidents have claimed membership within a faith—indeed, to this point all have claimed strains of Christian faith specifically—the particulars of their religious and political views have varied, and so assumed different forms upon being mixed. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to name one example, was influenced by the Episcopal Church, by the Social Gospel movement, by polio, by poverty and war, and, of course, by Democratic politics. A new religious biography examines these influences closely.