POLITICS AND RELIGION IN AMERICA: FROM BARACK OBAMA TO DONALD TRUMP
POLITICS AND RELIGION IN AMERICA: FROM BARACK OBAMA TO DONALD TRUMP

Summary/Abstract: The proposed article will analyze various addresses of American presidents B. Obama and D. Trump, focusing on the specific references to religion, the religious terminology they employed, as well as the implied strategic goals and the effects they might have produced. In The United States there is an official separation of church and state, however this separation does not imply the absence of the religious dimension from the political field, therefore beyond a private faith, worship and manifestations of personal belief, there are certain common elements of religious orientation that the great majority of Americans share (R. Bellah). America remains associated with a country infused politically by Christianity. The presidential discourses are preponderantly infused with religious language, from the commonly used God bless America to quotations of various verses from the Bible. During his two mandates President Obama reflected on his personal faith on various occasions, the Inaugural address, the National Prayer Breakfast, the Easter Breakfast, and other public statements, addressing to people of faith, of all faiths, or no faith. Already with his presidential campaign Donald Trump provoked heated debates and controversies over most of the issues he addressed, and religion is but one of them. However, although his religiosity has been under radical scrutiny, and highly questioned, in the end, the president won four fifths of the votes of white evangelical Christians and was strongly supported by much of the Bible belt.

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