Steven Waldman on the faith of the Founding Fathers
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
The culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Many activists on the right maintain that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Many on the left contend that the Founders were deists and the advent of the First Amendment proves that church and state should be separated. Author Steven Waldman contends that neither of these claims are true in his new book Founding Faith: Providence, Politics and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America.
This podcast was originally broadcast on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now with Coy Barefoot on April 16, 2008.