Blasphemy : How the Religious Right Is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence

by Dershowitz, Alan

• ISBN13: 9780470084557
• ISBN10: 0470084553
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-06-04
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

"This is an engaging refutation of an insidious form of 'political correctness' of the right-the nonsensical idea that our country was founded on Christian principles. Anyone, left or right, who admires the foundations of American democracy will enjoy this spirited reminder of the Founding Fathers' true genius." -Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor, Harvard University author of The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and The Stuff of Thought "The wall of separation between church and state is one of the great barriers to religious tyranny. Among the wall's most articulate defenders is Dershowitz, who shows in this readable book why the authors of our Declaration feared theocracy and favored democracy." -Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law at New York Law School and President of the American Civil Liberties Union "Blasphemy proves that many Christians are as deliberately bewildered about the history of our nation as they are about the evolution of life on this planet. Dershowitz has done a great service in rescuing Jefferson, Adams, and the other Founding Fathers from the religious delusions of the Christian Right. This book will strike a great blow to the forces of theocracy in the United States." -Sam Harris, author of the New York Times bestsellers The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation "Right wing Christian zealots don't know Thomas Jefferson from Jefferson Starship. The assertion that our Declaration of Independence is a Christian document is absurd. Colonists fled Europe to escape religious persecution, not to be controlled by a different religion. Dershowitz proves that Jefferson and his compatriots purposely built a wall between Church and State that the Religious Right is now attempting to destroy. If conservative Christians are successful at shoving God down our throats, the end of democracy as we know it will soon follow." -U.S. Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) "Blasphemy is a brilliant, well-researched critique of the Religious Right's 'Christian Nation' mythology and its misuse of the American historical record. Just as significant, Professor Dershowitz illuminates the open hostility and vitriol this movement routinely exhibits toward all, religious or secular, who dare to challenge its faulty conclusions." -Barry W. Lynn, Executive Director, Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Author Biography

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, is one of the country's foremost appellate lawyers and a distinguished defender of individual liberties. His many books include the #1 New York Times bestseller Chutzpah and the Wiley books The Case for Israel, also a New York Times bestseller; The Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can Be Resolved; and What Israel Means to Me. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: Is the United States a Christian Nation?	p. 1
The God of the Declaration: Is He the God of Today's Christian Right?	p. 11
The Christian Right's Strategy to Turn the Declaration into a Baptismal Certificate	p. 77
What Are "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"?	p. 123
Conclusion	p. 157
The Declaration of Independence	p. 167
Notes	p. 173
Index	p. 187
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