Separation of Church & State: Founding Principle of Religious Liberty.

Weaver, Doug

Separation of Church & State: Founding Principle of Religious Liberty. By Frank Lambert. Mercer University Press, 2014, 227 pp.

On a recent trip, the woman sitting next to me on the airplane saw me reading this book, and blurted out, "Separation of church and state is not in the Constitution. You can't have morality without God." Based on the medical essay she was reading, the woman was surely educated, but her views revealed her lack of proper education regarding American history. As I read the book, I knew it was for her--if only she would be willing to read it.

Frank Lambert's book is indeed intended for a general audience. A well-regarded analyst of American religion, Lambert wrote the book after giving the Walter and Kay Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty at Mercer University in 2012. He incorporated materials from previous books such as The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America (2003) into this work, which resulted in occasional repetition.

The book is an excellent summary of the history of religious freedom/ separation of church and state in America. Separate chapters cover the Holy Commonwealth of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, eighteenth-century America, "constituting" religion in the newly created states, and finally "constituting the separation of church and state" in the new republic. Lambert gives perceptive coverage to the expected prominent founding figures such as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison, among others. He also notes and highlights as appropriate the pivotal role of Baptists. Roger Williams, Isaac Backus and John Leland, etc. naturally receive attention.

Other fine general surveys of these topics have been produced (Edwin Gaustad, for example), but Lambert's fine contribution lies in analyzing how "Christian Nation/Christian America" apologists have dealt (badly) with the historical material. Lambert provides an in-depth look at the work and methods of these "historians" such as David Barton (WallBuilders), Timothy LaHaye, and John Eidsmore.

Using quotations around "historian" to argue they are not trained as historians and their work is historically inadequate, Lambert shows, for example, that the apologists cite unconfirmed quotations from founding fathers and employ an approach that imposes the biases of the present onto the past. He notes that these apologists create a "usable past" (25) that links the founders to the Republican Party and fundamentalist Christianity.

Lambert acknowledges, "The aim of this book is to separate propaganda and myth from history" (12) for the general reader. In the process, he argues successfully that separation of church and state was a vital constitutional principle of 1776. He demonstrates how America's founding era was "deeply secular" and "deeply sacred"--it was not the creation of a "Christian nation."

I learned these conclusions when I was a student in the 1970s, but as my recent airplane ride revealed, some people would rather promote propaganda as they react to the religious diversity in our midst rather than learn a solid understanding of church-state separation and how that has helped us all--and still does.--Reviewed by Doug Weaver, professor of religion, Baylor University, Waco, Texas