So Help Me God: Presidential Faith, Pulpit Politics, and the First Great Battle to Save America's Soul
by Forrest Church
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jA recap of the history we learned in high school, but with an emphasis on the ways the five first presidents dealt with the question of religion and government. the insistence they all showed on keeping them separate, but the opposition from others in the churches and the government who felt the nation couldn't be safe without a strong Christian focus. The Baptists and Methodists were the firmest in separation--the Episcopal and astonishingly, the Unitarians, were more inclined to seek the ch...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Robert by:
David Livingstonrecommends it for: every thinking adult
The more things change the more they stay the same. Forrest
Church's masterful recounting of America's first "culture war" is eerily familiar. The contempoary clash between the religious right(which is neither)and the rest of us already took place in America at the end of the Eighteenth and the beginning of the Nineteenth Centuries. Who knew? Fortunately, Forrest Church did, and he wrote it down.
Does freedom of religion mean freedom from religion? Contrary to popular myth, m...more
Church's masterful recounting of America's first "culture war" is eerily familiar. The contempoary clash between the religious right(which is neither)and the rest of us already took place in America at the end of the Eighteenth and the beginning of the Nineteenth Centuries. Who knew? Fortunately, Forrest Church did, and he wrote it down.
Does freedom of religion mean freedom from religion? Contrary to popular myth, m...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
Evan Powell
Excellent book for those interested in the early history of our country. Surprisingly, perhaps, the founding fathers broke with European tradition and purposely did not include a deity or national religion in the Constitution. Their belief was that "liberty" above "god" would protect freedom of religion. This book details the attempts by then strong religious sects through the first five presidencies to force their own religious views on the country through the federal govern
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Read in March, 2008
Been wanting to read one of these good 'founding father' histories. This looks like a good one. Just from reading the introduction I'm struck with how much more seemingly open our society was then than now: They apparently knew who the believers and non-believers were, and it wasn't a problem (James Madison was a noted and public agnostic, apparently). I fear we're many decades away from being seeing anyone run for national office as an avowed "secular humanist".
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