Summary
Though I am unpersuaded by Heclo's approach, his essay is nonetheless a positive step away from the contemporary, simplistic, self-assured insistence that this is a Christian country.\n Yes, defined broadly, Christianity was the common element among dominant religious groups when the American constitutional experiment began, but the Founders gave no thought to making women equal to men. [...] states have permitted faith-healing parents to be immune to liability or even prosecution for the serious harm done to their children as a result of medical neglect, and Congress has exempted churches and other religious organizations from land-use laws, thereby allowing them, for example, to build structures that rob a neighborhood of its residential character.
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Faith-Based History
BOOKS FAITH-BASED HISTORY CHRISTIANITY AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY BY HUGH HECLO, Harvard University Press, 299 pages, $25.95
THE IDEA THAT THE UNITED STATES is a "Christian country" is at the heart of the religious right's program for reconstructing America's constitutional and cultural order. For if this is a Christian country, religious conservatives reason, their beliefs rightly dominate the three branches of government, public schools, and public observances. Thus, they would re-institute prayer in public schools, permit posting of the Ten Commandments in any gov...See the full content of this document
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