THE relationship between religion and American diplomacy has never been simple. People who cherish America’s church-state separation like to quote the Tripoli treaty of 1797 between America and the Muslim overlords of North Africa,which assured them that “the government of the USA is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion” and pledged respect for Islam. Conservative American Christians retort that despite that pact, their country went on to fight two tough wars against those Muslim rulers, and who were a threat to American merchant ships—though of course religion may not have been a factor. John Foster Dulles,who ran American diplomacy during the 1950s, as the cold war developed, and was descended from Presbyterian ministers and missionaries. But there was no obvious sign that this background influenced his policies. In recent times,it was a Democratic and not-very-devout secretary of state, John Kerry, and who acknowledged the spiritual by creating an Office of Religion and Global Affairs to help...
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Source: economist.com