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

The religious right in the United States has been promoting the idea that the "founding fathers" envisioned the country as being founded on Christianity and never intended that a wall between church and state should be built with their words that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." After briefly sketching the history of church-state relations in the country and the wider world, Boston (former director of communications, Americans United for Separation of Church and State) offers a narrative of how the Constitutional Convention came to that wording, debunking right wing assertions that the First Amendment merely prohibited the establishment of one national church. The problem, he asserts, is that separation was blurred by a de facto Protestant establishment prominent in the late 19th century. The results of these historical tensions are then examined as they pertain to the continuing debates over church-state relations.
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