Browsed by
Category: Writings

The “War” on “Christianity”

The “War” on “Christianity”

Evangelical Christians go from “moral majority” to persecuted minority. Adapted from Sacred Liberty “Christianity is under tremendous siege,” said Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. “The Christians are being treated horribly because we have nobody to represent the Christians.” Trump pledged that with his election, “the Christians” would at long last have a champion. “As long as I am your president no one is ever going to stop you from practicing your faith or from preaching what’s in your…

Read More Read More

What the Religious Right Gets Right

What the Religious Right Gets Right

Their cries of persecution are exaggerated and mischievous — but they also have some legitimate concerns In Sacred Liberty, I offer loads of examples for how the modern claims of persecution by religious conservatives are exaggerated — and how Donald Trump has weaponized religious freedom concerns to sew division and beat up opponents. But it’s also important to understand that traditional American Christians are not hallucinating when they express concerns about their own religious status and rights. Look at it…

Read More Read More

The Alabama Law Bans Abortion — Except if It’s a Jewish Or Muslim Doctor?

The Alabama Law Bans Abortion — Except if It’s a Jewish Or Muslim Doctor?

The logical conclusion of the current trend toward religious exemptions There may be a strange, implied loophole in the Alabama anti-abortion law – that abortions can be performed … if the doctor is Jewish or Muslim. Here’s the logic.  We are in a moment of history when the courts are leaning in the direction of providing religious exemptions to secular laws.  This was the thrust of the Sisters of the Poor case, when a group of nuns said that they…

Read More Read More

Reviews of Founding Faith

Reviews of Founding Faith

“There is a fierce custody battle going on out there for ownership of the Founding Fathers. Founding Faith strikes me as a major contribution to that debate, a sensible and sophisticated argument that the Founders’ religious convictions defy our current categories….If asked to recommend the best book on this controversial topic, I would choose Founding Faith.” –Joseph Ellis, author of American Creation “Steven Waldman, a veteran journalist and co-founder of Beliefnet.com, a religious web site, surveys the convictions and legacy…

Read More Read More

Liberating the Founders

Liberating the Founders

TRANSCRIPT October 30, 2008 KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: I’m Krista Tippett. Today, “Liberating the Founders.” Americans remain divided about how much religion they want in their political life. As we elect a new president, we return to an evocative, relevant conversation from earlier this year with journalist Steven Waldman. From his unusual study of the American founders, he understands why 21st-century struggles over religion in the public square spur passionate disagreement and entanglement with politics at its most impure. MR. STEVE…

Read More Read More

George Washington, Defender of Catholics

George Washington, Defender of Catholics

First published in Beliefnet.com  I’ve written in the past about how some of America’s founders not only discriminated against Catholics but actively stoked anti-Catholic sentiment to advance the American cause. Yet somehow, Catholics ended up being gradually included in the American religious compact. As Pope Benedict XI said, now, “Respect for freedom of religion is deeply ingrained in the American consciousness.” What happened? I would argue that the key figure was George Washington. As the Revolutionary War began, many persisted…

Read More Read More

The Evangelical Founding Fathers

The Evangelical Founding Fathers

Remember the concerns of those to whom Jefferson wrote on the separation of church and state First published in Christianity Today, March 25, 2008 By Steven Waldman Much attention has been paid to the idea that evangelical Christians are, politically, in motion. Only 29 percent of “born-again” Christians now say they support Republicans, compared to 62 percent in 2004, according to Barna Research. Among those who participated in the Republican primaries, many went for John McCain, who once called certain…

Read More Read More

The Pious Infidel

The Pious Infidel

First appeared in First Things, March 19, 2008 By Steven Waldman Though the most Deistic of the Founding Fathers, even Jefferson was not a full-fledged Deist if we accept that philosophy as having had two fundamental tenets: a rejection of biblical revelation and a conviction that God, having created the laws of the universe, had receded from day-to-day control and intervention. Jefferson clearly did agree with the first part of Deism. But he did not agree with the second. Jefferson…

Read More Read More

Why The Inaugural Prayers Have Become Less Inclusive Over Time

Why The Inaugural Prayers Have Become Less Inclusive Over Time

By Steven Waldman First published in The Wall Street Journal in 2009 In 1949, the year of Harry S. Truman’s inauguration ceremony, America was a much less tolerant and diverse place. It would be another decade before Americans would be comfortable electing a Catholic president. Jews were still excluded from the upper echelons of government and business. The levers of power were held by Protestants, who made up the vast majority of the population. But there on the podium with…

Read More Read More