After fighting as an Israeli soldier in the 1973 war, and troubled by the nation's obsessive mixing of the Bible with politics, filmmaker Ilan Ziv left for America, which he considered a 'safe haven' because of its separation between church and state.
Thirty-five years later, alarmed by the prominent role of religion in the 2008 American presidential campaign, he decided to take a road trip to understand the phenomenon. Rather than follow the candidates, however, Ziv decides to meet with religious activists supporting the Democratic and Republican candidates.
From the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, to Super Tuesday in Oklahoma, this documentary shows the electioneering efforts of Baptist activists for Obama, Catholics and evangelicals for McCain, Christian conservatives for Huckabee, as well as the political efforts of evangelical organisations such as Christians United for Israel.
Combining archival footage and interviews, the film provides a historical overview of religion in American politics, from the Great Awakening religious revivals in the 18th and 19th centuries, through to 1960 when JFK asked voters to disregard his Catholic faith, to the rise of Jimmy Carter in 1976 as a 'born again' Christian, and the more recent emergence of the Religious New Right and its political activism around the issues of abortion and homosexuality.
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