Founding Faith

I just finished listening to the audiobook version of Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, by Steven Waldman. He examines the claims of both sides in the "culture wars" over issues such as religious activity in public schools, that their respective positions correspond to those of the Founding Fathers, especially those who created the First Amendment. Waldman gives a good even-handed look at both the individuals involved (Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Washington, etc.), and the debates on these issues, both before and after the First Congress under the Constitution drew up the amendment. One of his points is that the people involved in those original debates did not fit our current definition of either religious conservatives or secular humanists. However, I think he goes a bit far when he speculates what positions those various men might have taken on issues such as school prayer. That weakens his earlier argument that the Founding Fathers' statements are not very relevant to those modern disputes, in part because it was only after ratification of the 14th Amendment, long after the Founding Fathers were gone, that courts have interpreted that portions of the Bill of Rights apply to the states, and not only to activity of the federal government.

Image: Architect of the Capitol