A popular look at the separation of church and state: what it is, what it isn't, and why it matters for the future of religion in America.

• An alarm-ringing but intelligent and fair-minded revelation of the backlash against traditional moral values, presented in an accessible and practical way using the sports analogy of fair play.
• Explains why religiously-informed moral values are under threat in a one-sided interpretation of church and state.
• Empowers readers by helping them to clarify confusing viewpoints and motivating them to act on what they believe.

THE DIVIDED STATES OF AMERICA

Thomas Nelson

Contents

Acknowledgments......................................................................................viiForeword.............................................................................................ix1. What's God Got to Do with America?................................................................12. What Liberals Are Missing.........................................................................173. What Conservatives Are Missing....................................................................354. Where Has God Been in America?....................................................................615. All the Presidents' Faith.........................................................................796. Why We're So Confused about Church and State......................................................1057. Is There a New Religion Penalty in America?.......................................................1398. What Happens When You Mix God and Country-and What Happens When You Don't?........................1659. Does America Have a Special Role in the World?....................................................18710. Soul Freedom-a Divine Mandate?...................................................................21111. What Does It Mean to Say, "God Bless America"?...................................................225AppendicesA. A Modest Proposal for Religious Accommodation in Public Schools...................................245B. The Barmen Declaration............................................................................249C. Bibles and Scripture Passages Used by Presidents in Taking the Oath of Office.....................255D. Presidential Addresses............................................................................259E. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.........................................................289F. Avoidance, Accommodation, and Acknowledgment: Comparison and Contrast.............................297Notes................................................................................................299Index................................................................................................313Scripture Index......................................................................................323

Chapter One

It is imperative that we begin speaking plainly about the absurdity of most of our religious beliefs. -Sam Harris

With God officially expunged from America's public life, can guns be far behind? ... Without guts, guns become museum pieces, and God becomes a nostalgic memory. In other words, lose one and you lose all three. -Chuck Baldwin

* * *

Rolling down one side of America's cultural highway is a Lexus RX hybrid with a "Love Your Mother (Earth)" decal discreetly placed in the lower left of the rear window. Below, a bumper sticker features an illustration of Rodin's famous sculpture The Thinker, next to the quotation, "I think; therefore I am a liberal." Headed in the opposite direction across the double yellow line is a Dodge Ram Hemi pickup truck with a gun rack mounted in the cab, a Confederate flag pasted across the back window, and a bumper sticker proclaiming, "God, Guns, 'n' Guts Made America Free!"

On their way home to Blue and Red America, these two road warriors are unwitting adversaries in a titanic clash of conflicting worldviews-often called the culture wars.

What's God got to do with America? The woman in the Lexus behind designer prescription sunglasses thinks God has nothing to do with America-past, present, or future. The dude in the Dodge wearing a Skoal ball cap thinks God has a lot-if not everything-to do with America.

Could they both be wrong? God may very well have more to do with America than liberals may think and less than conservatives often assume.

THROWING "RABBIT PUNCHES" AND LOW BLOWS LEFT AND RIGHT

America's political divide has generated plenty of heat and hot air, and voices on both sides have been needlessly strident. The nonfiction best-seller lists in the last decade chart the partisan pendulum swings. Ten years ago liberal comedian Al Franken threw down the gauntlet with his crass-as-you-can Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot (Delacorte, 1996). Conservative television host Bill O'Reilly hit the list a few years later with his pull-no-punches diatribe The O'Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life (Broadway, 2000). Emmy-winning reporter Bernard Goldberg turned up the volume by blowing his shrill whistle Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News (Regnery, 2001), recounting tale after tale of liberal censorship in the way the media control and shape the news.

Leftist muckraker Michael Moore-best known for his "documentaries," such as Roger and Me and Fahrenheit 9/11-grabbed the book-shaped megaphone with Stupid White Men ... and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! (ReganBooks, 2002), a screed about how "Thief-in-Chief" George W. Bush and his Republican power elite allegedly stole the 2000 election from Al Gore and the Democrats. Authors David Hardy and Jason Clarke countered with Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man (ReganBooks, 2004), which drew praise from conservatives (and not a few liberals who confessed they couldn't stand Moore either).

Ann Coulter further lowered the level of "discourse" with Slander: Liberal Lies about the American Right (Crown, 2002). Franken hit it big again with Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Dutton, 2003). Not to be outdone, Bernard Goldberg encored on the bestseller list with 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken Is #37) (HarperCollins, 2005), which featured Michael Moore on the front cover, among other "America Bashers," "Hollywood Blowhards," "TV Schlockmeisters," and "Intellectual Thugs." Meanwhile, Ann Coulter kept up her best-selling attacks on the Left, including How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) (Crown, 2004) and Godless: The Church of Liberalism (Crown, 2006), swinging verbal punches in her books and in interviews with the articulate, yet no-holds-barred, abandon of a roller-derby queen. Talk show host Michael Savage continued to live down to his name with best-selling tirades, such as Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder: Savage Solutions (Nelson, 2005).

A little book that never made the best-seller lists employed a compendium of liberal pundits to take down all the voices on the Right in one volume, one target per chapter, in The I Hate Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity ... Reader: The Hideous Truth about America's Ugliest Conservatives. The back-cover copy hits the sneering tone of the political culture wars with pitch-perfect prose.

Sick to death of the right-wing blowhards and bullies who dominate our media? This collection exposes the hypocrisy and lies of the...