PBS American Experience - God in America (2010)

For the first time on television, God in America explores the tumultuous 400-year history of the intersection of religion and public life in America, from the first European settlements to the 2008 presidential election. A co-production of American Experience and Frontline, this six-hour series examines how religious dissidents helped shape the American concept of religious liberty and the controversial evolution of that ideal in the nation's courts and political arena; how religious freedom and waves of new immigrants and religious revivals fueled competition in the religious marketplace; how movements for social reform —from abolition to civil rights — galvanized men and women to put their faith into political action; and how religious faith influenced conflicts from the American Revolution to the Cold War.

Part 1: A New Adam
Explore the origins of America's unique religious landscape - how the New World challenged and changed the faiths the first European settlers brought with them.

Part 2: A New Eden
Examins how the unlikely alliance between evangelical Baptists and enlightenment figures such as Thomas Jefferson forged a new concept of religious freedom.

Part 3: A Nation Reborn
As slavery split the nation in two, Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders turned to the Bible to support their cause. In the White House, Abraham Lincoln, who previously had put his faith in reason over revelation, embarked on a spiritual journey that transformed his ideas about God and the ultimate meaning of the war.

Part 4: A New Light
During the 1800s, modernity challenged tradition and drove a wedge between liberal and conservative believers. Isaac Mayer Wise established Reform Judaism while his opponents adhered to Old World traditions. Charles Briggs sought to wed his evangelical faith with modern biblical scholarship. William Jennings Bryan battled Clarence Darrow in a battle between scientific and religious truth.

Part 5: Soul of a Nation
After WWII, Billy Graham tried to inspire a religious revival in a battle with “Godless Communism.” Non-believers and religious minorities appealed to the Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of religious expression in public schools. And Martin Luther King, Jr. called upon the nation to honor both biblical teachings and the founders’ democratic ideals of equal justice.

Part 6: Of God and Caesar
Explore the religious and political aspirations of conservative evangelicals’ moral crusade over divisive social issues like abortion and gay marriage in the present day. Across America, the religious marketplace expanded as new waves of immigrants from Asia, the Middle East and Latin America made the United States the most religiously diverse nation on earth.