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

Blasphemy"Anyone, left or right, who admires the foundations of American democracy will enjoy this spirited reminder of the Founding Fathers' true genius."--Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and The Stuff of Thought"The wall of separation between church and state is one of the great barriers to religious tyranny. Among the wall's most articulate defenders is Dershowitz, who shows in this readable book why the authors of our Declaration feared theocracy and favored democracy."--Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law, New York Law School, and President of the American Civil Liberties Union"Dershowitz proves that Jefferson and his compatriots purposely built a wall between Church and State that the Religious Right is now attempting to destroy. If conservative Christians are successful at shoving God down our throats, the end of democracy as we know it will soon follow."--U.S. Congressman Pete Stark (D-Calif.)The Religious Right is engaged in a crusade to convert the United States into a Christian theocracy based on the Bible and transform the Declaration of Independence into America's baptismal certificate. Now the acclaimed civil libertarian and legal educator Alan Dershowitz fights back. In this compelling and provocative book, he decisively counters arguments that the Declaration was founded on biblical law, proving conclusively that there is absolutely no relation between the "Creator" and "Nature's God" referenced in the Declaration and the Judeo-Christian God of the Old and New Testaments.Dershowitz is both passionate and persuasive as he rescues the Declaration from the clutches of the Religious Right's dangerous historical revisionism. In Blasphemy, he restores Thomas Jefferson's document to its rightful place in American history--and its proper role in shaping the future of the country.