Fighting the Good Fight from the "Church of the Presidents": Peter Marshall's Homiletics during the Second World War

The preaching of the renowned Scottish immigrant minister Peter Marshall, at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. during the Second World War, illuminates two recurrent themes. The first, beginning shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939, lies in Marshall's efforts to awaken his congregation to the plight of the United Kingdom and counter isolationist sentiments then widespread in the American public. The second motif, which gained momentum after the United States officially entered the war in December 1941, is shown in his jeremiads calling attention to what he perceived as the moral decay of American society. His sermons show that Marshall accepted popularly held notions of American exceptionalism-that the United States was God's favored nation, but was failing to live up to the standards that it had set for itself.