Garry Wills - Was America Founded on Christianity?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2007/10/13/Garry_Wills_Head_and_Heart

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and cultural historian Garry Wills discusses the origins of America's separation between church and state, and argues that this relationship has worked to the benefit of both interests.

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Garry Wills discusses his book "Head and Heart: American Christianities."

A prolific thinker and writer on history and faith, Wills tackles the evolving roles of the multiple denominations of Christianity throughout American history. He sees an ongoing tension between reason and emotion, which he believes is necessary and inevitable, and is clearly visible in the fervor of the religious right pitted against the enlightenment values of separation of church and state - Politics & Prose Bookstore

Garry Wills (PhD Yale, 1961) is an adjunct professor and cultural historian whose many books include penetrating studies of George Washington, Richard Nixon, the Kennedy family, Ronald Reagan, and religion in America. His numerous prizes include the Merle Curti Award of the American Historical Association, the National Book Critics Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and an honorary doctorate from the College of the Holy Cross.

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[chodaboy51500]

@iron100159 And was passed unanimously by Congress.

[Strefanasha]

@S2Cents yes indeed. it, true religion, is rare, the Bible actually says so; and that preached by politicians and soldiers over there (here in new zealand we are not so cursed) is as false as it gets

[S2Cents]

@Strefanasha Well "true religion" is rare by your definition since religion is always being practiced and preached by the politicians and statesmen and especially military people -soldiers, officers.. and the most militant in any society are usually religious and religion is always invoked to support wars

[jfsfrnd]

"No distinction seems to be more obvious than that between spiritual and temporal matters. Yet whenever they have been made objects of Legislation, they have clashed and contended with each other, till one or the other has gained the supremacy."

[James Madison in a letter to Thomas Jefferson Oct-Nov 1787]

[Strefanasha]

and what is current american religiosity worth? American exceptionalism, aggressive wars, torture, an imperial presidency, contempt for the poor and manifest crimes all done while invoking the name of God.

do i have to spell it out that such relgion is worthless? read St James in the Bible

Such blasphemies God Himself will not leave unpunished, for true relgion is not the rubber stamp of a state, but its fiercest critic

[Strefanasha]

Given what Jesus said about the Way, that it was strait, narrow and few there are who find it. there is NO such thing as a christian country.

when countries made up their minds to be christian the result was religious abomination, legislated hypocrisy, and ultimately inquisitions.

The religious right is dangerous, beingheretical,  and their lies must be refuted, including their historical revisionism

[bill0756]

@iron100159

EXACTLY, so understanding ALL of the information and context, it is obvious that:

1) the govt of the US is NOT founded on any religion

2) that the founders supported state funding of Christian missionaries

3) that today, using selective out of context representation of history, those wanting no connection between religion and state manipulate history.

the treaty of tripoli was dialogue to diffuse hostility.

atheists in Canada generally have no problem funding Catholic schools.

[iron100159]

@bill0756 "As the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion..." John Adams, treaty of tripoli 1797

[bill0756]

The separation of church and state had only a purpose of not having a Church Of England or similar state religion, in the USA. The words "separation of church and state" have been misrepresented as having NO connection of govt to religion, which is not what the founders thought should happen. Evidence of the founders intention can be understood by their having public funding of Christian missionaries to the indians.

[TheDano1947]

But look at how religion has turned out in this country.