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

Why would some of America's best-known religious and political leaders launch a campaign to knowingly distort the history, nature, and intent of one of our most precious national documents——the Declaration of Independence? Why would they seek to convert our Declaration into a baptismal certificate? How can they claim that Thomas Jefferson, who expressly rejected the divinity of Jesus and the notion that the Bible is the word of God, was the author of a Christian proclamation that, far from establishing the people as the ultimate source of political power, forms a bridge between the Bible and the Constitution? In Blasphemy, the #1 New York Times bestselling author Alan Dershowitz proves that the Religious Right is misusing the Declaration of Independence in its drive to Christianize America. He demonstrates that repeated claims by Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Alan Keyes, and others alleging the Declaration to be a Christian document are both easily disproved and deliberately aimed to mislead. Dershowitz also reveals the motive behind this mendacity: if the Religious Right can convince enough gullible Americans that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, they can require religious control of public schools, federal funding of churches and church-based programs, religious tests for elected and appointed officials, and much more. Using the Religious Right's own public statements as evidence, Dershowitz shows conclusively that Falwell and Robertson and their followers are fervently opposed to such fundamental American values as tolerance, religious freedom, personal choice, and even democracy itself. Quoting freely from Jefferson's many writings on religion and citing his public stances on issues such as school prayer and public funding of religious activities, Dershowitz deftly demonstrates that Jefferson was a strong advocate of church/state separation. He reveals why President John Adams, a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration, signed a treaty flatly stating that the United States was not in any way a Christian nation. In addition, he explains why even devoutly Christian delegates to the Continental Congress, having experienced firsthand the tyrannical nature of state-sponsored religion, willingly approved the Declaration's unequivocal establishment of a government based on separation of church and state. It is more than ironic that the Declaration——which was intended to free us from the yoke of "monkish ignorance"——should be invoked in favor of a Christian America. Providing expert arguments and copious documentation to disprove this grave distortion, Alan Dershowitz is as commanding——and compelling——as ever on the front lines in the defense of the American system of government and individual liberties.