Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in AmericaThe culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Many activists on the right maintain that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation.” Many on the left contend that the Founders were secular or Deist and that the First Amendment was designed to boldly separate church and state throughout the land. None of these claims are true, argues Beliefnet.com editor in chief Steven Waldman. With refreshing objectivity, Waldman narrates the real story of how our nation’s Founders forged a new approach to religious liberty, a revolutionary formula that promoted faith . . . by leaving it alone. |
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... Amendment Compromise Building a wall that looks good from all sides 72 86 94 89 100 107 127 141 15. Practicing What They Preached 159 . The first presidencies bring inspiring rhetoric , dirty politics , and sharp disagreement among the ...
... Amendment was designed to separate church and state through- out the land . Actually , the Founders only intended it to apply to the fed- eral government , not the local govemments that regulate schools , local courthouses , and town ...
... Amendment would only apply to the federal govern- ment , not to state or local governments , which could aid - or even oppress- religion as much as they wanted . We tend to forget ( now that these men are demigods ) that they were also ...
... Amendment , then personally chaperoned its pas- sage . And as president , he took the hardest line of all in applying the First Amendment to practical cases . Along the way , Madison offered the most in- tegrated vision of how to build ...
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Contents
18 | |
John Adams | 33 |
George Washington | 56 |
The pious infidel | 72 |
Natures God Meets the Supreme Judge | 86 |
James Madison | 93 |
A Diabolical Persecution | 100 |
The Mighty Current of Freedom | 107 |
Forgetting the Powerful Friend | 127 |
The First Amendment Compromise | 141 |
They Were Right | 188 |
Index | 209 |
207 | 243 |
Other editions - View all
Founding Faith: How Our Founding Fathers Forged a Radical New Approach to ... Steven Waldman No preview available - 2009 |