“We do not know the architectural proportions of Bethel,” Niebuhr noted. “But we do know that it is, metaphorically, the description of the East Room of the White House, which President Nixon has turned into a kind of sanctuary.” By bringing Graham to the White House, Nixon had not only violated the principle of separation of church and state enshrined in the Bill of Rights; he had also created a convenient way of co-opting the religious authority of those he invited to speak. “It is wonderful,” Niebuhr wrote acidly, “what a simple White House invitation will do to dull the critical faculties,
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