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The Myth Of American Religious Freedom
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Book Synopsis The Myth of American Religious Freedom by : David Sehat
Download or read book The Myth of American Religious Freedom written by David Sehat and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-14 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the battles over religion and politics in America, both liberals and conservatives often appeal to history. Liberals claim that the Founders separated church and state. But for much of American history, David Sehat writes, Protestant Christianity was intimately intertwined with the state. Yet the past was not the Christian utopia that conservatives imagine either. Instead, a Protestant moral establishment prevailed, using government power to punish free thinkers and religious dissidents. In The Myth of American Religious Freedom, Sehat provides an eye-opening history of religion in public life, overturning our most cherished myths. Originally, the First Amendment applied only to the federal government, which had limited authority. The Protestant moral establishment ruled on the state level. Using moral laws to uphold religious power, religious partisans enforced a moral and religious orthodoxy against Catholics, Jews, Mormons, agnostics, and others. Not until 1940 did the U.S. Supreme Court extend the First Amendment to the states. As the Supreme Court began to dismantle the connections between religion and government, Sehat argues, religious conservatives mobilized to maintain their power and began the culture wars of the last fifty years. To trace the rise and fall of this Protestant establishment, Sehat focuses on a series of dissenters--abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, socialist Eugene V. Debs, and many others. Shattering myths held by both the left and right, David Sehat forces us to rethink some of our most deeply held beliefs. By showing the bad history used on both sides, he denies partisans a safe refuge with the Founders.
Book Synopsis The Impossibility of Religious Freedom by : Winnifred Fallers Sullivan
Download or read book The Impossibility of Religious Freedom written by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Constitution may guarantee it. But religious freedom in America is, in fact, impossible. So argues this timely and iconoclastic work by law and religion scholar Winnifred Sullivan. Sullivan uses as the backdrop for the book the trial of Warner vs. Boca Raton, a recent case concerning the laws that protect the free exercise of religion in America. The trial, for which the author served as an expert witness, concerned regulations banning certain memorials from a multiconfessional nondenominational cemetery in Boca Raton, Florida. The book portrays the unsuccessful struggle of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish families in Boca Raton to preserve the practice of placing such religious artifacts as crosses and stars of David on the graves of the city-owned burial ground. Sullivan demonstrates how, during the course of the proceeding, citizens from all walks of life and religious backgrounds were harassed to define just what their religion is. She argues that their plight points up a shocking truth: religion cannot be coherently defined for the purposes of American law, because everyone has different definitions of what religion is. Indeed, while religious freedom as a political idea was arguably once a force for tolerance, it has now become a force for intolerance, she maintains. A clear-eyed look at the laws created to protect religious freedom, this vigorously argued book offers a new take on a right deemed by many to be necessary for a free democratic society. It will have broad appeal not only for religion scholars, but also for anyone interested in law and the Constitution. Featuring a new preface by the author, The Impossibility of Religious Freedom offers a new take on a right deemed by many to be necessary for a free democratic society.
Book Synopsis The American Myth of Religious Freedom by : Kenneth R. Craycraft
Download or read book The American Myth of Religious Freedom written by Kenneth R. Craycraft and published by Spence Publishing Company. This book was released on 1999 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There's no such thing as religious freedom under the American Constitution, argues Kenneth Craycraft. In a liberal regime, "toleration" never puts religion and secularism on an equal footing. Though questioning the religious foundations of our political order, this reassessment of the First Amendment reveals the deeper sources of hope for the church in America.
Download or read book Taking Liberties written by Robert Boston and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A concise and lucid explanation of what religious freedom is and isn'tncreasingly, conservative religious groups are using religious liberty as a sword to lash out at others. In this forcefully argued defense of the separation of church and state, Robert Boston makes it clear that the religious freedom guaranteed in the First Amendment is an individual right, the right of personal conscience, not a license allowing religious organizations to discriminate against and control others. The book examines the controversy over birth control, same-sex marriage, religion in public schools, the intersection of faith and politics, and the "war on Christmas," among other topics. Boston concludes with a series of recommendations for resolving clashes between religious liberty claims and individual rights."
Book Synopsis The American Myth of Religious Freedom by : Kenneth R. Craycraft, Jr.
Download or read book The American Myth of Religious Freedom written by Kenneth R. Craycraft, Jr. and published by . This book was released on 2002-05-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis American Crusade by : Andrew L Seidel
Download or read book American Crusade written by Andrew L Seidel and published by Union Square & Co.. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is a fight against equality and for privilege a fight for religious supremacy? Andrew L. Seidel, a constitutional attorney and author of the critically acclaimed book The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American, dives into the debate on religious liberty, the modern attempt to weaponize religious freedom, and the Supreme Court's role in that “crusade.” Seidel examines some of the key Supreme Court cases of the last thirty years—including Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (a bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple), Trump v. Hawaii (the anti-Muslim travel ban case), American Legion v. American Humanist Association (related to a group maintaining a 40-foot Christian cross on government-owned land), and Tandon v. Newsom (a Santa Clara Bible group exempted from Covid health restrictions), as well as the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade—and how a hallowed legal protection, freedom of religion, has been turned into a tool to advance privilege and impose religion on others. This is a meticulously researched and deeply insightful account of our political landscape with a foreword provided by noted constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, author of The Case Against the Supreme Court. The issue of church versus state is more relevant than ever in today’s political climate and with the conservative majority status of the current Supreme Court. This book is a standout on the shelf for fans of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris. Readers looking for critiques of the rise of Christian nationalism, like Jesus and John Wayne, and examinations like How Democracies Die will devour Seidel's analysis. Hardcover with dust jacket; 320 pages; 9 in H by 6 in W.
Book Synopsis The Founding Myth by : Andrew L. Seidel
Download or read book The Founding Myth written by Andrew L. Seidel and published by Sterling. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was America founded on Judeo-Christian principles? Are the Ten Commandments the basis for American law? In the paperback edition of this critically acclaimed book, a constitutional attorney settles the debate about religion's role in America's founding. In today's contentious political climate, understanding religion's role in American government is more important than ever. Christian nationalists assert that our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and advocate an agenda based on this popular historical claim. But is this belief true? The Founding Myth answers the question once and for all. Andrew L. Seidel builds his case by comparing the Ten Commandments to the Constitution and contrasting biblical doctrine with America's founding philosophy, showing that the Declaration of Independence contradicts the Bible. Thoroughly researched, this persuasively argued and fascinating book proves that America was not built on the Bible and that Christian nationalism is un-American. Includes a new epilogue reflecting on the role Christian nationalism played in fomenting the January 6, 2021, insurrection in DC and the warnings the nation missed.
Book Synopsis Did America Have a Christian Founding? by : Mark David Hall
Download or read book Did America Have a Christian Founding? written by Mark David Hall and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A distinguished professor debunks the assertion that America's Founders were deists who desired the strict separation of church and state and instead shows that their political ideas were profoundly influenced by their Christian convictions. In 2010, David Mark Hall gave a lecture at the Heritage Foundation entitled "Did America Have a Christian Founding?" His balanced and thoughtful approach to this controversial question caused a sensation. C-SPAN televised his talk, and an essay based on it has been downloaded more than 300,000 times. In this book, Hall expands upon this essay, making the airtight case that America's Founders were not deists. He explains why and how the Founders' views are absolutely relevant today, showing that they did not create a "godless" Constitution; that even Jefferson and Madison did not want a high wall separating church and state; that most Founders believed the government should encourage Christianity; and that they embraced a robust understanding of religious liberty for biblical and theological reasons. This compelling and utterly persuasive book will convince skeptics and equip believers and conservatives to defend the idea that Christian thought was crucial to the nation's founding--and that this benefits all of us, whatever our faith (or lack of faith).
Book Synopsis The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom by : Steven D. Smith
Download or read book The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom written by Steven D. Smith and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-18 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Familiar accounts of religious freedom in the United States often tell a story of visionary founders who broke from centuries-old patterns of Christendom to establish a political arrangement committed to secular and religiously neutral government. These novel commitments were supposedly embodied in the religion clauses of the First Amendment. But this story is largely a fairytale, Steven Smith says in this incisive examination of a much-mythologized subject. The American achievement was not a rejection of Christian commitments but a retrieval of classic Christian ideals of freedom of the church and of conscience. Smith maintains that the First Amendment was intended merely to preserve the political status quo in matters of religion. America's distinctive contribution was, rather, a commitment to open contestation between secularist and providentialist understandings of the nation which evolved over the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, far from vindicating constitutional principles, as conventional wisdom suggests, the Supreme Court imposed secular neutrality, which effectively repudiated this commitment to open contestation. Instead of upholding what was distinctively American and constitutional, these decisions subverted it. The negative consequences are visible today in the incoherence of religion clause jurisprudence and the intense culture wars in American politics.
Book Synopsis A Seat at the Table by : Huston Smith
Download or read book A Seat at the Table written by Huston Smith and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-03-05 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Seat At The Table is a valuable and insightful book about a too long overlooked topic - the right of Native American people to have their sacred sites and practices honored and protected. Let's hope it gets read far and wide, enough to bring about a real shift in policy and consciousness.”—Bonnie Raitt "Phil Cousineau has created a fine companion book to accompany the important film he and Gary Rhine have made in defense of the religious traditions of Native Americans. [Native Americans] are recognized the world over as keepers of a vital piece of the Creator's original orders, and yet they are regarded as little more than squatters at home. This book features impressive interviews, beautiful illustrations, and gives a voice to the voiceless.”—Peter Coyote
Book Synopsis Separation of Church and State by : Philip HAMBURGER
Download or read book Separation of Church and State written by Philip HAMBURGER and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a powerful challenge to conventional wisdom, Philip Hamburger argues that the separation of church and state has no historical foundation in the First Amendment. The detailed evidence assembled here shows that eighteenth-century Americans almost never invoked this principle. Although Thomas Jefferson and others retrospectively claimed that the First Amendment separated church and state, separation became part of American constitutional law only much later. Hamburger shows that separation became a constitutional freedom largely through fear and prejudice. Jefferson supported separation out of hostility to the Federalist clergy of New England. Nativist Protestants (ranging from nineteenth-century Know Nothings to twentieth-century members of the K.K.K.) adopted the principle of separation to restrict the role of Catholics in public life. Gradually, these Protestants were joined by theologically liberal, anti-Christian secularists, who hoped that separation would limit Christianity and all other distinct religions. Eventually, a wide range of men and women called for separation. Almost all of these Americans feared ecclesiastical authority, particularly that of the Catholic Church, and, in response to their fears, they increasingly perceived religious liberty to require a separation of church from state. American religious liberty was thus redefined and even transformed. In the process, the First Amendment was often used as an instrument of intolerance and discrimination.
Book Synopsis Myths America Lives By by : Richard T. Hughes
Download or read book Myths America Lives By written by Richard T. Hughes and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2018-09-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Six myths lie at the heart of the American experience. Taken as aspirational, four of those myths remind us of our noblest ideals, challenging us to realize our nation's promise while galvanizing the sense of hope and unity we need to reach our goals. Misused, these myths allow for illusions of innocence that fly in the face of white supremacy, the primal American myth that stands at the heart of all the others.
Book Synopsis Liberty of Conscience by : Martha Craven Nussbaum
Download or read book Liberty of Conscience written by Martha Craven Nussbaum and published by Basic Books (AZ). This book was released on 2008-02-05 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of America's commitment to religious liberty uses political history, philosophical ideas, and key constitutional cases to discuss its basis in six principles: equality, respect for conscience, liberty, accommodation of minorities, nonestablishment, and separation of church and state.
Book Synopsis The Myth of American Individualism by : Barry Alan Shain
Download or read book The Myth of American Individualism written by Barry Alan Shain and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sharpening the debate over the values that formed America's founding political philosophy, Barry Alan Shain challenges us to reconsider what early Americans meant when they used such basic political concepts as the public good, liberty, and slavery. We have too readily assumed, he argues, that eighteenth-century Americans understood these and other terms in an individualistic manner. However, by exploring how these core elements of their political thought were employed in Revolutionary-era sermons, public documents, newspaper editorials, and political pamphlets, Shain reveals a very different understanding--one based on a reformed Protestant communalism. In this context, individual liberty was the freedom to order one's life in accord with the demanding ethical standards found in Scripture and confirmed by reason. This was in keeping with Americans' widespread acceptance of original sin and the related assumption that a well-lived life was only possible in a tightly knit, intrusive community made up of families, congregations, and local government bodies. Shain concludes that Revolutionary-era Americans defended a Protestant communal vision of human flourishing that stands in stark opposition to contemporary liberal individualism. This overlooked component of the American political inheritance, he further suggests, demands examination because it alters the historical ground upon which contemporary political alternatives often seek legitimation, and it facilitates our understanding of much of American history and of the foundational language still used in authoritative political documents.
Book Synopsis American Heretics by : Peter Gottschalk
Download or read book American Heretics written by Peter Gottschalk and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-11-12 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the arc of American religious discrimination, revealing a disturbing pattern of religious intolerance, from colonial anti-Quaker sentiment and Judaism to today's Muslins, Sikhs, and other religious groups under fire.
Book Synopsis Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul by : John M. Barry
Download or read book Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul written by John M. Barry and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-01-05 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revelatory look at how Roger Williams shaped the nature of religion, political power, and individual rights in America. For four hundred years, Americans have wrestled with and fought over two concepts that define the nature of the nation: the proper relation between church and state and between a free individual and the state. These debates began with the extraordinary thought and struggles of Roger Williams, who had an unparalleled understanding of the conflict between a government that justified itself by "reason of state"-i.e. national security-and its perceived "will of God" and the "ancient rights and liberties" of individuals. This is a story of power, set against Puritan America and the English Civil War. Williams's interactions with King James, Francis Bacon, Oliver Cromwell, and his mentor Edward Coke set his course, but his fundamental ideas came to fruition in America, as Williams, though a Puritan, collided with John Winthrop's vision of his "City upon a Hill." Acclaimed historian John M. Barry explores the development of these fundamental ideas through the story of the man who was the first to link religious freedom to individual liberty, and who created in America the first government and society on earth informed by those beliefs. The story is essential to the continuing debate over how we define the role of religion and political power in modern American life.
Book Synopsis The Rise of Religious Liberty in America by : Sanford Hoadley Cobb
Download or read book The Rise of Religious Liberty in America written by Sanford Hoadley Cobb and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
