Sacred liberty : America's long and bloody struggle for religious freedom

First Title Value for Searching:

Personal Author:

Waldman, Steven

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

ix, 405 pages : ill. ; 24 cm.

Summary:

Argues that religious liberty is America's greatest innovation and the protection of religious minorities and the separation of church and state are at risk today.

Subject Term:

Freedom of religion -- United States -- History.

Publication Info:

New York, NY : HarperOne, [2019]

Subject:

Freedom of religion -- United States -- History.

Freedom of religion -- Law and legislation

Freedom of worship

Intolerance

Liberty of religion

Religious freedom

Religious liberty

Separation of church and state

SAILS ISBN:

9780062743145

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... East Bridgewater Public Library	323.442 WAL 2019	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Fairhaven-Millicent	323 WAL 2019	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Foxboro - Boyden Library	323.442 WALDMAN	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... New Bedford Free Public Library	323.442 WAL 2019	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Richards Memorial Library	323.442 W119	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Seekonk Public Library	323.442 WALDMAN	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown

Sacred Liberty offers a dramatic, sweeping survey of how America built a unique model of religious freedom, perhaps the nation's "greatest invention." Steven Waldman, the bestselling author of Founding Faith, shows how early ideas about religious liberty were tested and refined amidst the brutal persecution of Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, Quakers, African slaves, Native Americans, Muslims, Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses. American leaders drove religious freedom forward--figures like James Madison, George Washington, the World War II presidents (Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower) and even George W. Bush. But the biggest heroes were the regular Americans - people like Mary Dyer, Marie Barnett and W.D. Mohammed -- who risked their lives or reputations by demanding to practice their faiths freely.

Just as the documentary Eyes on the Prize captured the rich drama of the civil rights movement, Sacred Liberty brings to life the remarkable story of how America became one of the few nations in world history that has religious freedom, diversity and high levels of piety at the same time. Finally, Sacred Liberty provides a roadmap for how, in the face of modern threats to religious freedom, this great achievement can be preserved.

Reviews (5)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Waldman (Founding Faith), founder of multifaith website Beliefnet, offers a fine overview of the growth of religious freedom in the United States. While the framers of the U.S. Constitution debated the place of religious freedom, it was James Madison, Waldman writes, who championed the separation of church and state and, in particular, the idea that states could not establish an official faith. Waldman details how Native Americans, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Jews later looked to Madison's ideas in order to argue for equal treatment. It was not until after WWII that religious freedoms taken for granted today were established as the result of pressure placed on the political (particularly from Catholic groups, who organized diverse coalitions into voting blocks) and legal systems (including 23 Jehovah's Witnesses cases argued in front of the Supreme Court between 1938 and 1946) to widen concepts of religious freedom to include the freedom of public religious expression and protections guarding against religious bias. Waldman makes a brief argument that common sense should prevail over legal battles, citing the Colorado case against a baker who refused to sell to an LGBTQ customer as an example of the legal system reaffirming common sense practices. General readers of American history will find much to enjoy in Waldman's exploration of the evolution of American religious freedoms. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

An energetic pop history surveys America's commitments to religious liberty from the 17th century to the present.As journalist and Beliefnet co-founder Waldman (Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, 2008, etc.) shows, whatever you may have learned in elementary school about the Puritans, the Colonies were hardly bastions of religious freedom; in fact, using executions and arrests, English leaders harshly enforced various ecclesial establishments. It wasn't until the American Revolution that the Founding Fathers crafted norms of religious liberty. James Madison is the star of Waldman's account; Thomas Jefferson shows up for his 1801 use of the phrase "wall of separation between Church State," but the author pays too little attention to his important role in pushing for religious toleration in revolutionary Virginia. The late-18th- and early-19th-century articulations of religious freedom were the true beginning of the story. In the decades that followed, many groups, including Catholics, Latter-day Saints, and Jehovah's Witnesses, prodded the nation to further embody its ideals of religious liberty. As late as 1942, Franklin Roosevelt opined that America was "a Protestant country and the Catholics and Jews are here under sufferance." Indeed, as Waldman's especially helpful discussion of the post-World War II landscape demonstrates, the 1940s brought a new push for interfaith understandingAmy Vanderbilt's etiquette guide included a chapter on itas a sort of generic, pluralist faith was marshalled as a counter to communism. The 1940s also saw the Supreme Court taking a more expanded role defining religious freedom; in earlier decades, argues the author, the shape of religious liberty was largely left up to local governments. Turning to the present, Waldman suggests how anti-Islamic sentiment among non-Muslim Americans provides a way of assessing the reach and the limits of America's commitment to religious pluralism.Armchair historians who can tolerate Waldman's occasional stylistic indulgencese.g., dramatic single-sentence paragraphs, breathless ellipses, lengthy block quoteswill be rewarded with an informative account. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

In this highly accessible popular history, Beliefnet cofounder Waldman tells the story of the First Amendment's religion clauses, concluding with a set of principles for keeping American religious freedom vital. The history is often one of the country's many shameful episodes of religious persecution, beginning with the Puritan execution of Quaker Mary Dyer on Boston Common in 1660. A century later, young James Madison was so mortified by the way Virginia Anglicans assaulted Baptist preachers that it eventually provoked the religion clauses out of him, though they were watered down from his originals, which had spelled out that neither state nor federal governments could establish a church or inhibit religious practice. Baptists and Methodists first and later Catholic and Jewish immigrants as well as homegrown Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses were legally persecuted and worse. (The nadir of persecution was of Native American religions.) In 1865, the Fourteenth Amendment finally extended the clauses' injunctions to the states, but then judges, used to states' rights, didn't start applying the Fourteenth until the twentieth century, when cases brought by the Witnesses, in particular, spurred the Supreme Court to obey the Constitution. Islam in America advanced comfortably until 9/11, after which persecution of it became the latest threat to religious freedom. Waldman points out that Madison's contention that religion thrives when government neither favors nor encumbers particular sects has proven itself. A fascinating look at an important piece of history.--Ray Olson Copyright 2019 Booklist

New York Review of Books Review

THE DAMASCUS ROAD, by Jay Parini. (Doubleday, $27.95.) Parini, a poet, novelist and biographer whose previous books include a historical account of Jesus, here uses fiction to imagine the life and times of St. Paul and explore the early spread of Christianity. THE MOMENT OF LIFT: HOW EMPOWERING WOMEN CHANGES the world, by Melinda Gates. (Flatiron, $26.99.) Gates shares stories of the women she has met through her philanthropic work, and uses data to argue that strong women are essential to strong societies. "I want all of us to see ways we can lift women up," she writes. WHAT MY MOTHER AND I DON'T TALK ABOUT: FIFTEEN WRITERS break the silence, edited by Michele Filgate. (Simon & Schuster, $26.) Mother-child bonds are among our most intimate. But as these powerful essays attest, their evasions can be crucial. Contributors include Melissa Febos, Kiese Laymon, Leslie Jamison and more. SACRED LIBERTY: AMERICA'S LONG, BLOODY, AND ONGOING STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, by Steven Waldman. (HarperOne, $28.99.) Religious freedom, enshrined in the First Amendment, is central to America's identity. Waldman shows how remarkable that is, and how tenuous. PERMISSION, by Saskia Vogel. (Coach House, paper, $17.95.) The grieving heroine of Vogel's debut novel turns for solace to the Los Angeles dominatrix scene, testing the boundaries of desire and power and personal freedom.

Choice Review

The subject of religious liberty continues to fascinate modern society. By European standards, the US remains a devoutly religious nation, but this religiosity coexists alongside a robust secularism and a growing religious pluralism. Historian Steven Waldman adds a welcome new study to this growing body of literature. In his previous work, Founding Faith, he explored how the founders sought to carve out a new relationship between church and state at the American founding. In this follow-up work, Waldman expands the narrative across the entire spectrum of American history through the present day. He filters this story through the framework of past religious persecutions. The ideas of religious freedom, and the reality of religious freedom, have not always been in perfect harmony. Waldman balances his story by recognizing both the shortcomings in the American story of religious liberty and the positive benefits in reform movements motivated by religious convictions. An important thesis at work here is that the story of religious liberty is never complete. For instance, Waldman argues that current discussions over Muslim immigration have created new political and legal challenges to the meaning of religious liberty. In conclusion, this work is a welcome addition to the modern debate over religious liberty. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Matthew Scott Hill, Liberty University

Introduction	p. 1
The long march to religious freedom.
1 Failed Experiments	p. 11
For more than two hundred years, the American colonies try traditional approaches to religious tolerance. It does not go well.
2 Madison's Model	p. 25
James Madison helps craft the Constitution, the First Amendment, and an ingeniously counterintuitive theory of religious freedom.
3 The Startup Boom	p. 49
The state religious establishments collapse and religious fervor erupts.
4 The Romish Threat	p. 65
America confronts a flammable question: Should religious freedom apply to Catholics?
5 The Religious Freedom of Slaves	p. 81
African spirituality and Islam are purged, creating a "spiritual holocaust."
6 The Divine Plan	p. 89
Real religious freedom exists because of the Fourteenth Amendment, which exists because of Representative John Bingham, a devout Christian on a special mission.
7 The Mormon Challenge	p. 97
The astonishing American war on Mormonism reveals the shallowness of the nineteenth-century commitment to religious freedom.
8 Kill the Indian, Christianize the Man	p. 119
The efforts to help Native Americans include the campaign to ban their spiritual practices and convert their children to Christianity.
9 The KKK, Al Smith, and the Fight for the Public Schools	p. 141
The surge in Catholic immigration prompts an ugly Protestant backlash.
10 The Witnesses	p. 163
A tiny, reviled, and obnoxious American religion forces the nation to define what religious liberty really means.
11 World War II and the Judeo-Christians	p. 177
To defeat Hitler and the Communists, America elevates and redefines religious freedom and invites Jews to the table.
12 Enter the Supreme Court	p. 197
The full power of the First Amendment is finally felt as the Court becomes a major player.
13 "Alien Blood"	p. 215
Millions of Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists enter America-transforming the dynamics of religious freedom-thanks to the immigration act of 1965.
14 Political Bedfellows	p. 227
The poison gets drained from the Protestant-Catholic relationship-in part because of the rise of the religious right.
15 The "War" on "Christianity"	p. 239
Evangelical Christians go from "moral majority" to persecuted minority.
16 All-American Islam	p. 257
Muslims are on their way to becoming the latest fully mainstreamed American religion. Until 9/11.
17 "An Enemy Inside Our Perimeter"	p. 271
A major attack on religious freedom is launched against American Muslims, accelerated by a new kind of media and a new kind of leader.
18 Preserving Religious Freedom	p. 301
Why it took so long, how we might lose it, and how we can save it.
Acknowledgments	p. 323
Notes	p. 325
Captions, Permissions, and Credits	p. 389
Index	p. 391

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