Why the Religious Right is Wrong about Separation of Church & State

Why the Religious Right is Wrong about Separation of Church & State PDF Author: Rob Boston
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781591021148
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Completely revised and updated, this second edition is packed with information to help activists defend church-state separation.

Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church and State

Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church and State PDF Author: Robert Boston
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615924108
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Award-winning journalist Robert Boston lambastes the zealots of the Religious Right for spreading misinformation about the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state. Boston reveals how a band of ultraconservative religious groups with a political agenda - led primarily by televangelist Pat Robertson - is conducting a systematic war aginst the separation of church and state. The tactics of these groups are designed to exploit unfounded fears and turn the American people against the separationist principle. They will not rest, Boston says, until the United States has become a theocracy. To expose the Religious Right's blatant distortions of U.S. history and correct its skewed analysis of legal rulings, Boston objectively reviews the evolution of church/state relations in the United States and looks at how the separation principle has been applied by the courts. He also examines efforts by sectarian groups to win government support for their schools, the school prayer issue, the history of the free exercise of religion, and the controversial role of religion in the public square. Published in cooperation with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State

Why the Religious Right Is Wrong about Separation of Church and State

Why the Religious Right Is Wrong about Separation of Church and State PDF Author: R. Boston
Publisher: Turtleback Books
ISBN: 9781417669271
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Why the Christian Right Is Wrong

Why the Christian Right Is Wrong PDF Author: Robin Meyers
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0787997862
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
"I join the ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus but whose actions are anything but Christian." —Robin Meyers, from his "Speech Heard Round the World" Millions of Americans are outraged at the Bush administration's domestic and foreign policies and even angrier that the nation's religious conservatives have touted these policies as representative of moral values. Why the Christian Right Is Wrong is a rousing manifesto that will ignite the collective conscience of all whose faith and values have been misrepresented by the Christian Right. Praise for Why the Christian Right Is Wrong: "In the pulpit, Robin Meyers is the new generation's Harry Emerson Fosdick, George Buttrick, and Martin Luther King. In these pages, you will find a stirring message for our times, from a man who believes that God's love is universal, that the great Jewish prophets are as relevant now as in ancient times, and that the Jesus who drove the money changers from the Temple may yet inspire us to embrace justice and compassion as the soul of democracy. This is not a book for narrow sectarian minds; read it, and you will want to change the world." —Bill Moyers "In this book, a powerful and authentic religious voice from America's heartland holds up a mirror to the Bush administration and its religious allies. The result is a vision of Orwellian proportions in which values are inverted and violence, hatred, and bigotry are blessed by one known as 'The Prince of Peace,' who called us to love our enemies. If you treasure this country and tremble over its present direction, this book is a must-read!" —John Shelby Spong author, The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love "This is a timely warning and a clarion call to the church to recover the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to a great nation to resist the encroachment of the Christian Right and of Christian fascism. Many of us in other parts of the world are praying fervently that these calls will be heeded." —Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The Separation of Church and State

The Separation of Church and State PDF Author: Forrest Church
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 080707747X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Now in paperback, a primer of essential writings about one of the cornerstones of our democracy by the original authors of the Constitution, edited by preeminant liberal theologian Forrest Church. Americans will never stop debating the question of church-state separation, and such debates invariably lead back to the nation’s beginnings and the founders’ intent. The Separation of Church and State presents a basic collection of the founders’ teachings on this topic. This concise primer gets past the rhetoric that surrounds the current debate, placing the founders’ vivid writings on religious liberty in historical perspective. Edited and with running commentary by Forrest Church, this important collection informs anyone curious about the original blueprint for our country and its government.

Taking Liberties

Taking Liberties PDF Author: Robert Boston
Publisher:
ISBN: 1616149116
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
"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."

Separation of Church and State

Separation of Church and State PDF Author: Philip HAMBURGER
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674038185
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
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.

Piety & Politics

Piety & Politics PDF Author: Reverend Barry W. Lynn
Publisher: Forum Books
ISBN: 0307381633
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
The Reverend Barry Lynn explains why the Religious Right has it all wrong. In the wake of the 2004 presidential election, the Religious Right insisted that George Bush had been handed a mandate for an ideology-based social agenda, including the passage of a “marriage amendment” to ban same-sex unions, diversion of tax money to religious groups through “faith-based initiatives,” the teaching of creationism in public schools, and restrictions on abortion. Led by an aggressive band of television preachers and extremist radio personalities, the Religious Right set its sights on demolishing the wall of separation between church and state. The Reverend Barry Lynn is a devout Christian, but this propaganda effort disturbs him deeply. He argues that politicians need to stop looking to the Bible to justify their actions and should consult another source instead: the U.S. Constitution. When the Founding Fathers of our great nation created the Constitution, they had seen firsthand the dangers of an injudicious mix of religion and government. They knew what it was like to live under the yoke of state-imposed faith. They drew up a model for the new nation that would allow absolute freedom of religion. They knew that religion, united with the raw power of government, spawns tyranny. Yet the Religious Right now seems distrustful of those principles inherent in the Constitution, viewing the separation of church and state only as a dangerous anti-Christian principle imposed upon our nation. In reality, the separation between church and state has been an important ally to religion: with the state out of the picture, hundreds of religions have grown and prospered. Religion doesn’t need the government’s assistance, any more than it is practical or appropriate for religious doctrine to be fostered in the government or taught in public schools. As an explicitly religious figure speaking out against the Religious Right, Lynn has incurred the wrath of such personalities as Pat Buchanan, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson, who once said Lynn was “lower than a child molester.” Lynn has continuously taken on these radicals of the Religious Right calmly and rationally, using their own statements and religious fervor to prove that when they attack the constitutionally mandated separation, they’re actually attacking freedom of religion. In Piety & Politics, the Reverend Barry Lynn continues the fight—educating Americans about what is at stake, explaining why it is crucial that we maintain the separation of church and state, and galvanizing us to defend the honor of our religious freedom.

Church and State

Church and State PDF Author: Adelbert L. Wilber Jr.
Publisher: WestBow Press
ISBN: 1973617978
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
Church and State examines the wall of separation Thomas Jefferson spoke of in his letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 to answer a letter from them written in October 1801. The Danbury Baptists were a religious minority in Connecticut, and they complained that in their state, the religious liberties they enjoyed were not seen as immutable rights, but as privileges granted by the legislatureas favors granted. Jeffersons reply did not address their concerns about problems with state establishment of religiononly of establishment on the national level. The letter contains the phrase wall of separation between church and state, which led to the shorthand for the Establishment Clause that we use today: separation of church and state. The Jeffersonian view has been contentious, to say the least; a great many scholars and politicians have tried to comprehend Jeffersons true meaning, extending his viewpoint in later judicial and legislative decisions. Strong feelings expressed by clergy, statesmen, and politicians have created a strong theistic undertow in Constitutional Law that has seen attacks on Christianity and Judaism increase since the Clinton Administration and culminating into a cacophony of anti-theistic rhetoric under the Obama Administration. With the election of President Trump, we must look back to see the original intent of our founding fathers, take a snapshot of the current state of separation, and peer into the future to see if the balance between politics and religion can be sustained.

Good and Bad Ways to Think about Religion and Politics

Good and Bad Ways to Think about Religion and Politics PDF Author: Robert Benne
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802863647
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
"There is nothing greater than indignation to stimulate a writer to write." says Robert Benne, "and my outrage has been stirred mightily by reading so many wrongheaded 'takes' on how religion and politics ought to be related." --

Blinded by Might

Blinded by Might PDF Author: Cal Thomas
Publisher: Zondervan Publishing Company
ISBN: 9780310238362
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Comments on the defeat of Gary Hart and Alan Keyes in the presidential campaign, and re-examines the failure of the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition after two decades of political maneuvering.