No man can study the movement of modern civilization from an impartial standpoint and not realize that Christianity and the spread of Christianity are the basis of hope of modern civilization in the growth of popular self-government. The spirit of Christianity is pure democracy. It is equality of man before God—the equality of man before the law, which is, as I understand the most God-like manifestation that man has been able to make.
– President William Howard Taft, 1909
