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Revelations

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Did you know the Constitution never mentions God, and it explicitly stops Congress from "establishing" a religion? Yet, the official motto of our country is "In God We Trust." Did you know that President John Adams made Thanksgiving a day of fasting and mortification? Save for perhaps the pain Detroit Lions' fans always seem to endure on the third Thursday in November, modern Thanksgivings are a far cry from Adams' ideal. Clearly, times have changed but God and religion, as Feldman lays out, are very much part of our heritage. His brilliant book, Divided by God, begs the question: Do Americans truly want resolution on the issue of separation. Like Judge Noah Sweat's position on whiskey, we seem to enjoy our "if when you say" position that goes something like this: If when you say religion, you mean the right to free exercise of religion, Parochial Schools, religious organizations that provide tender care for our little children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged, and infirm, then we are for it. But, if when you say relgion, you mean those organizations that would impose their views upon others, who would exclude you from their organizations, their country clubs, their conversations, their private rituals, then we are against it. Or to put it another way, if the winless Detroit Lions ever expect to win a game, look for their fans to be singing Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" next Sunday. Like the Establishment Clause, it can't hurt.

Worth pondering - 4.5 stars

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In "Divided By God" Noah Feldman examines the church state issue from the problem of state, and colony, sponsored churches faced by the Founding Fathers, traces the history of church state relations, and how the ideas of the Founding Fathers were interpreted, from then to now. At the end he poses a possible solution that is well worth considering. His scholarship is excellent, and his writing is thoroughly readable. Those who have strong secularist tendencies as well as those with strong religious convictions should read this "outside the box" and potential solution to a huge dividing factor in American political life today.

A Great History Lesson that Tries to be More

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This book does an absolutely fantastic job of laying out an objective history of church-state issues in America. The author places a particular emphasis on the interplay between church and education. Considering the large role government plays in American education this is perhaps logical. If the book had stopped at the history lesson I would have given it five stars. Unfortunately, perhaps because of the pundit media culture in which we live, the author felt compelled to throw in some advocation at the end of the book.

I braced myself for the conlusion... Would I love it? Would I hate it and shout out loud at my book as though the author could actually hear my disgust? Unfortunately neither. The conclusion is undeveloped, sophomoric, and perhaps worst of all... BORING! I found myself not caring at all about what this guy had to say. I actually had trouble finishing the book after absolutely loving the first 95% of it.

So basically I loved the history (which is almost all of the book) but hated the conclusion.

terrible book

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clearly written by a freak - where has this guy been. waste of my time.

Find out for yourself and get past the talking points !

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If the church - state debate interests you, you owe it to yourself to get informed. This book does an excellent job of blowing up all the talking points, from both sides of the political spectrum and helps the reader understand what happened and see both sides of this fascinating issue. Here's a list of interesting, historical observations which vary from the typical left and right talking points.

The nation was NOT founded by Christians. Most of the founders were deists who believed in a creator, but were NOT traditional christians.

Those who wrote the constitution did not think christian symbols, prayer in public ceremonies or other chrsitian trappings "established" religion.

Bible reading was prominent in public schools all the way into the middle of the 20th century and was viewed as a way of establishing public morality. It was NOT viewed as establishing religion.

The judges who created a more severe interpretation of the establishment clause were influenced by the events of World War II, where millions were killed on the basis of their religion alone. The idea that they might have been power hungry, liberal and secular judges is not strongly supported by the facts. Justice Black who wrote the first opinion in 1947 that called for a "high wall of separation" was a former klansman and was concerned about one religion holding sway, not with building a secular country.

The establishment clause was originally applied only to federal matters.

There are many more fascinating historical facts that will help inform and broaden your grasp of this issue.

I highly recommend this book.