Audiobook3 hours
Believers, Thinkers, and Founders: How We Came to Be One Nation Under God
Written by Kevin Seamus Hasson
Narrated by John McLain
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
2/5
()
About this audiobook
In Believers, Thinkers, and Founders: How We Came to Be One Nation Under God, Kevin Seamus Hasson - founder and president emeritus of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty - offers a refreshing resolution to a familiar conundrum: If there is real religious freedom in America, how is it that our government keeps invoking God? He's everywhere - from our currency to the Pledge of Allegiance. Isn't that all entirely too religious? And just whose God are we talking about anyway? If we are intellectually honest, shouldn't we scrub all these references to God from our public life?
Yet the Declaration of Independence says that God is the source of our rights. "The traditional position," writes Hasson, "is that our fundamental human rights -including those secured by the First Amendment - are endowed to us by the Creator, and that it would be perilous to permit the government ever to repudiate that point." America has steadfastly repeated that for more than 200 years, throughout all branches and levels of government.
To say that there is no Creator who endows us with rights, Hasson argues, "is to do more than simply tinker with one of the most famous one-liners in history; it is to change the starting point of our whole explanation of who we are as Americans and, ultimately, why our government is a limited one in the first place." What to do?
Hasson looks closely at the nation's founding and sees a solution in the classical distinction between faith and reason. The existence of God, he points out, can traditionally be known by reason alone, while who God is can only be seen by faith. By recognizing the distinction between the "self-evident" Creator referred to in the Declaration of Independence and God as revealed in our faith traditions, we can move past the culture wars that plague us. In short, Hasson argues that we can have a robust First Amendment without abandoning our natural rights. In Believers, Thinkers, and Founders, Hasson examines that idea while looking at a host of issues - including the Pledge of Allegiance, prayer at public events, and the Declaration of Independence - as he demonstrates how we can still be one nation under God.
Yet the Declaration of Independence says that God is the source of our rights. "The traditional position," writes Hasson, "is that our fundamental human rights -including those secured by the First Amendment - are endowed to us by the Creator, and that it would be perilous to permit the government ever to repudiate that point." America has steadfastly repeated that for more than 200 years, throughout all branches and levels of government.
To say that there is no Creator who endows us with rights, Hasson argues, "is to do more than simply tinker with one of the most famous one-liners in history; it is to change the starting point of our whole explanation of who we are as Americans and, ultimately, why our government is a limited one in the first place." What to do?
Hasson looks closely at the nation's founding and sees a solution in the classical distinction between faith and reason. The existence of God, he points out, can traditionally be known by reason alone, while who God is can only be seen by faith. By recognizing the distinction between the "self-evident" Creator referred to in the Declaration of Independence and God as revealed in our faith traditions, we can move past the culture wars that plague us. In short, Hasson argues that we can have a robust First Amendment without abandoning our natural rights. In Believers, Thinkers, and Founders, Hasson examines that idea while looking at a host of issues - including the Pledge of Allegiance, prayer at public events, and the Declaration of Independence - as he demonstrates how we can still be one nation under God.
Related to Believers, Thinkers, and Founders
Related audiobooks
Did America Have a Christian Founding?: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dark History of American Presidents: Digitally Narrated Using a Synthesized Voice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mere Natural Law: Originalism and the Anchoring Truths of the Constitution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fight the Good Fight: How an Alliance of Faith and Reason Can Win the Culture War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Is America?: Understanding the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Two Paths: America Divided or United Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Common Sense (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTakeover: How a Conservative Student Club Captured the Supreme Court Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sacred Liberty: America's Long, Bloody, and Ongoing Struggle for Religious Freedom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Conservatism: History, Beliefs, and Impact Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation's Founding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crisis on the Border: An Eyewitness Account of Illegal Aliens, Violent Crime, and Cartels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiberty: Natural Rights and the American Constitution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRepublican Like Me: How I Left the Liberal Bubble and Learned to Love the Right Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Andrew Jackson: The Making of America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTaking Down Backpage: Fighting the World's Largest Sex Trafficker Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Patriots: Answering the Call to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Search and Destroy: Inside the Campaign Against Brett Kavanaugh Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsE Pluribus Unum: How the Common Law Helped Unify and Liberate Colonial America, 1607-1776 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rise of the Republican Right: Economic and Social Conservatism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America's Founding Fathers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unelected: How an Unaccountable Elite is Governing America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Young Men: The Dangerous Allure of Violent Movements and What We Can Do About It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Huckabee: The Authorized Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Religion & Spirituality For You
Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Awe of God: The Astounding Way a Healthy Fear of God Transforms Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Enoch the Prophet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil is Afraid of Me: The Life and Work of the World's Most Famous Exorcist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Blood of the Lamb: The Conquering Weapon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spritual Growth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Problem of Pain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Created to Dream: The 6 Phases God Uses to Grow Your Faith Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Power to Change: Mastering the Habits That Matter Most Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gospel of Thomas: The Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection through Embodied Living Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Naked Now: Learning To See As the Mystics See Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gift of Rumi: Experiencing the Wisdom of the Sufi Master Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Believers, Thinkers, and Founders
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
2/5
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Repeated gross mischaraterizations of the opposition making it really difficult to take any argument in this book seriously.
1 person found this helpful