The myth of American religious freedom / David Sehat.

ISBN:

9780199792573

Title:

Author:

Sehat, David, author.

Personal Author:

Sehat, David, author.

Publication Information:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 356 pages)

Contents:

Introduction : the myth of American religious freedom -- Contested liberties -- A godless government? -- The moral establishment -- The moral purpose of slavery and abolition -- Moral reproduction and the family -- Morals, citizenship, and segregation -- Women's rights, woman's individuality, and the Bible -- Religion, morals, and law -- A conflict of authorities -- Liberal and conservative moral visions -- The liberal moment -- A moral majority? -- Conclusion : moral maximalism and religious control.

Subject Term:

Freedom of religion -- United States -- History.

Christian ethics -- United States -- History.

Geographic Term:

United States -- Church history.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

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Publication Date:

2011

Publication Information:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
261.720973 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

In the battles over religion and politics in America, both liberals and conservatives often appeal to history. Liberals claim that the Founders separated church and state. But for much of American history, David Sehat writes, Protestant Christianity was intimately intertwined with the state. Yet the past was not the Christian utopia that conservatives imagine either. Instead, a Protestant moral establishment prevailed, using government power to punish free thinkers and religious dissidents.In The Myth of American Religious Freedom, Sehat provides an eye-opening history of religion in public life, overturning our most cherished myths. Originally, the First Amendment applied only to the federal government, which had limited authority. The Protestant moral establishment ruled on the state level. Using moral laws to uphold religious power, religious partisans enforced a moral and religious orthodoxy against Catholics, Jews, Mormons, agnostics, and others. Not until 1940 did the U.S. Supreme Court extend the First Amendment to the states. As the Supreme Court began to dismantle the connections between religion and government, Sehat argues, religious conservatives mobilized to maintain their power and began the culture wars of the last fifty years. To trace the rise and fall of this Protestant establishment, Sehat focuses on a series of dissenters--abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, socialist Eugene V. Debs, and many others. Shattering myths held by both the left and right, David Sehat forces us to rethink some of our most deeply held beliefs. By showing the bad history used on both sides, he denies partisans a safe refuge with the Founders.

Author Notes

David Sehat is Assistant Professor of History at Georgia State University.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this new and compelling examination of American religious history, Sehat argues that this country did not extend freedom of religion to all, but until recently was controlled by a Protestant Christian establishment that sought to impose its will in coercive and often exclusionary ways. An assistant professor of history at Georgia State University, Sehat shows how state and federal courts sided with the Protestant moral establishment in battles with Roman Catholics over public schools, with Mormons over polygamy, and with freethinkers over the right to be irreligious. This argument might surprise 21st-century Americans convinced their country has always been a beacon of religious liberty, but it is precisely this flaw in the national religious image that Sehat attempts to illuminate, if not always concisely. His argument is timely in light of the controversy over a proposed Islamic center near ground zero in New York City. It is also an important corrective to the ongoing culture wars between the religious right, which claims this country was birthed on a Christian foundation, and secularists, who insist that the First Amendment spells out a separation of church and state. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Choice Review

Sehat (Georgia State) challenges "the threefold myth of American religious freedom"--myths that provide the foundation of the civic identity of the American people but, he argues, are based on false assumptions. The first myth is the separation of church and state. The author points out that the separation Madison and Jefferson envisioned did not occur until comparatively recently, if at all, because of court-enforced limitations of the First Amendment to federal, as opposed to state and local, law. The second myth is that of religious decline--Sehat argues that religion has played an increasingly more powerful role in American public life. The third myth is that of "exceptional liberty." Sehat takes on the common understanding that religious liberty forms the cornerstone of American liberty and is "a beacon of freedom to the world," arguing instead for a contested American religious history. This well-written revision of Sehat's dissertation breaks little new ground for historians of US religion, but it is useful for those less familiar with that history. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. B. F. Le Beau University of Saint Mary

Library Journal Review

The Framers and their vision of America and American religion are often invoked. So a book investigating their thinking and the truth about religious freedom would be relevant. But this isn't it. Sehat (history, Georgia State Univ.) promises an investigation into religious liberty. He starts off well, relating an 1886 blasphemy conviction in New Jersey along with accounts of how several states continued to have established churches even after the First Amendment was passed. But then he turns to a general discussion of morality in public life with lengthy detours about the suffragettes, freedmen, Billy Graham, and other miscellany. His last chapter is a march through Supreme Court decisions of the last 50 years, many of which seem out of place here. The result is that the book reads like a collection of essays rather than a work with one focus and theme, which is disappointing because the notes show the author's extensive research. VERDICT There is noteworthy material here-such as the federal government's war with the Mormon Church over polygamy-but it's not deeply explored, in spite of all his research, and often receives only a gloss, making this a better choice for those new to the topics than for advanced readers.-Michael O. Eshleman, Kings Mills, OH (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.