God and Jersusalem in the Democratic Platform

A major theme of our book is the deep impact of religion on American political life.  Religious conviction was one reason for President Truman's decision to recognize the State of Israel immediately after its founding.  Religion and Israel were prominent at today's session of the Democratic National Convention, as CNN reports:

Democrats voted to update their party's platform Wednesday evening at their convention to include a reference to Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, as well as the insertion of the word "God," neither of which was included in their platform this year but was in previous platforms.

President Barack Obama himself intervened regarding the Jerusalem language, a senior Democratic source told CNN, adding, that he thought the original draft was "a strong statement and he didn't want there to be any confusion about his unshakeable commitment to the security of state israel. The issue of the day is Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah." 

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The word God, which appeared in the 2008 and 2004 platform, was not originally included in the 2012 version. When he learned of the absence of the word God from the platform, Obama reacted by saying, "Why on earth would that have been taken out?" three Democratic sources told CNN.