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.

"As a minister in the United Church of Christ and executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Lynn has a significant stake in the battle for religious freedom, arguing that church-state separation has fostered 'religious diversity and vitality'-fundamentalism included. But as a citizen who also respects the sanctity of secular law, he argues against using tax dollars for the imposition of specific religious worldviews on America's diverse peoples, whether through tax-funded, faith-based initiatives or abstinence-only sex-education. Religious freedom, Lynn asserts, means the 'right to worship or not worship as you see fit,' not a government obligation to boost religion. He grounds his legal arguments not in the Ten Commandments (which, he writes, 'attempt to regulate religious behavior' along with civic conduct), but in the Constitution. In this political season, Lynn offers a sound alternative for Democratic leaders, who have sought to bridge perceived 'values deficits' with religion instead of what the party ostensibly stands for: 'a commitment to civil rights, civil liberties and economic justice.'" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

“This book is for the millions of proud Americans who are believers in a personal faith, freely chosen, and who wish to be left alone by the pretentious patriots who talk to God every day (and God talks back). God bless Barry Lynn, a man of certified religious belief, who wishes nothing more than allegiance to the one-of-a-kind First Amendment, which, far from discouraging believers, has promoted the many state-free faiths that have made the United States the most religious nation on earth. The First Amendment is pro faith while protecting atheists, agnostics, free thinkers, Teletubbies, and all the worthy ‘oddballs’ who have contributed so much to our nation’s multicultural bounty and who rely on the Bill of Rights to keep at bay the tyranny of the righteous, including the opportunists who pray every day for an America of one faith, theirs.”

Phil Donahue

“For too long, quasi-Christian forces on the far right of the political spectrum have been bullying courts, legislators, and ordinary Americans under the guise of defending American values and religious freedom. It’s high time that someone from the real religious community stood up to them. Hats off to the Reverend Barry Lynn for pushing back with this cogent and timely antidote to intolerance.”

Ron Reagan

A nationally syndicated radio host offers a call to arms to anyone who cares about America's separation of church and state, saying that when the Religious Right attacks the constitutionally mandated separation, what they're really attacking is the open marketplace of religion.

The Reverend Barry W. Lynn is an ordained United Church of Christ minister and an attorney. In 1992, he became executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Lynn’s nationally syndicated radio talk show, Culture Shocks with Barry Lynn, can be heard at cultureshocks.com.