America’s Best Idea: The Separation of Church and State

by Randall Balmer

A historian and ordained Episcopal priest offers everything you need to know for shaping and defending your own beliefs on the role of religion in American life

Filled with stories from America's struggle for religious freedom most readers have never heard before and perfect for fans of Jesus and John Wayne and On Tyranny

The 1st Amendment to the US Constitution codified the principle that government should play no role in favoring or supporting any religion, while allowing free exercise of all religions (including unbelief). More than 200 years later, the results from this experiment are The separation of church and state has shielded the government from religious factionalism, and the United States boasts a diverse religious culture unmatched in the world.

But changes have been taking place at an accelerating pace in recent years. The current Supreme Court has shifted away from excluding the influence and practice of religion at public institutions and in our laws and policies, and moved dramatically toward protecting the inclusion and promotion of religion in publicly funded undertakings.

Moreover, adherents to a Christian Nationalism ideology have grown more vocal and emboldened, and are increasingly moving into positions of power.

Randall Balmer, one of the premier historians of religion in America, reviews both the history of the separation of church and state and various attempts to undermine that wall. Despite the fact that the 1st Amendment and the separation of church and state has served the nation remarkably well, he argues, its future is by no means assured.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Religion, Audiobook, Education, Historical

160 pages, Paperback

Published August 5, 2025

About the author

Randall Herbert Balmer, Ph.D. (Princeton University, 1985), is an ordained Episcopal Priest and historian of American religion, and holds the John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth College. He also has taught at Barnard College; Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, Drew, Emory, Yale and Northwestern universities; and at Union Theological Seminary. Balmer was nominated for an Emmy Award for the PBS documentary "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory," based on his book of the same title.

Reviews

[Brian Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every member of Congress should read this book, especially Speaker Johnson.

[Amy Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone could benefit from reading this book. Throughout American history, politics have been threatening the integrity of religion. America has never been a Christian state and the rise of Christian Nationalism (and this administration) are a threat to democracy.

[Cindy Coats · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ALC copy of this book from the publisher.

This book is so important. It reminds us of the history of Christianity, politics, and American history. That America is NOT in fact a Christian nation. And why separation of church and state is important. Definitely an important resource to have and well put together

[Suzanne thebookblondie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quoted this book so many times because of its logical argument and profound inspiration for our country.

100% worth the read.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

My HOA has a book club and it is usually esoteric, but this was readable. A little dry. Cataloging American religion. For example, how Mitt Romney and his father talked about Mormonism 40 years apart.

[Julia James · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 💫

This has GOT to be one of the best books I’ve read all year. 100/10. Randall Balmer masterfully demonstrates the importance of separation of church and state through demonstrating how politicking religion and hawking Jesus for votes trivializes and degrades religion. One of my must reads for anyone looking for a good way to honor the 250th year anniversary of the founding. It’s time for Americans to rise to their better selves and seek to continue to establish the nation the founders intended

[Tammy Mannarino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great review of evidence from the founding of our government as to the intention on the separation of church and state. I also learned so much about related legislation over the centuries. There were a few points that felt repetitive, but I can forgive the author wanting to ensure that the reader has clarity on some important points. Will definitely reread or use as a reference.

[Erin Henze · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been a four star, but the audio of the ALC is a little weird? Like I can hear the author flipping through pages and he reads at a strange pace

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good in the fact that I learned a lot. I annotated a lot and I have a lot to talk about with people now.

The only thing I noticed that sort of bugged me a little was that it was a bit repetitive. That being said The repetitiveness did help drill somethings in that need to be learned. He addressed multiple religions historically and I even learned that a few branches of Christianity were/are staunchly against the Church melding with the state and vice versa. There is clearly a heavy focus on the first amendment as it is quoted a lot throughout the book, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Fave Quote (or one of):
"I assert that unlimited freedom of religion, consistent with morals and property, is essential to the progress of society and the amelioration of the condition of mankind." -John Adams

He calls to light many issues, including mandated prayer in schools. He points out that many of this country's founders were what's called Deists, who "understood God as a remote and disinterested entity," of whom included John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

A good bolster for those who may need ammo in discussions with friends and family. Be kind to each other though! Have open minded discussions.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this fascinating. As a person who is constantly trying to understand those around me while still ensuring that my personal morals are firmly planted on the hill I most believe in... well. Always be learning!

Internal thought while reading: I wonder how many people know what year "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance? (For those in need of a trivia fact - 1954 * President Eisenhower)

Favorite factoid takeaway: The Treaty of Tripoli - It passed unanimously by the Senate, was signed into law by President John Adams, & it states, “the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

Oh, and the mammoth cheese brought to Jefferson by boat AND a 6 horse drawn carriage was pretty entertaining too!

[Maggie Woodhill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a GREAT book for evangelicals to read… particularly Baptists. Balmer points us toward the Baptist roots, noting that for most of their history, the Baptists were deeply convicted about and campaigned for religious freedom.

He reminds us that true and genuine faith needs no support from the state… and such an intertwined nature with the state can indeed greatly injure its objectives.

Quite repetitive / slow at times… but the last 1/3 of this book really shines.

I read this book at the recommendation of Scot McKnight as his book of the year. I’m grateful I read it and genuinely enjoyed this read!

[Robin Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very informative, not only because it explains the historical context of the founders when the first amendment was written, but because it also references occasions of religious leaders and politicians reinforcing the idea put forth by the first amendment. It takes you from what was happening in the 1600s up through present day and helps to provide a better understanding of the importance and impact of the first amendment for our county. Definitely will be a book I pick up and reference!

[Red · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS is the course I wish I'd had in college and I will undoubtedly return to it again. Dr. Balmer's presentation is straightforward, mostly plain language and accessible to someone without a history or religious degree. He reads the audiobook himself, and hearing the juuuuust audible turning of the page adds to the experience, as does his emotion when he speaks on relevant topics in the U.S. today. -DEC 2025

[Clare Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative history of the first amendment (specifically the separation of church and state). I listen to a lot of podcasts related to the subject but hadn’t really ever thought of its early adaption.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please read this. Everyone, especially my fellow Americans, please do something good and important for yourself and read this. It's important and it's crucial.

[miller carpenetto · Rating 5 out of 5]

a concise collection of facts about the separation of church and state & christian nationalism. great book to have on your shelf!

[jo ✩]

-dnf-

why would i care about anything you have to say when your audiobook sounds like a bored 8th grader reading an essay to the class :|

[TheNextGenLibrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A leading historian and Episcopal priest explores the history, and growing threats, to the separation of church and state in the United States.
🇺🇸
Drawing on little-known stories from America’s fight for religious freedom, Randall Balmer explains how the First Amendment created a uniquely diverse religious culture while protecting government from sectarian conflict. As recent Supreme Court decisions and the rise of Christian Nationalism challenge this long-standing principle, Balmer argues that the future of religious freedom in American public life is increasingly uncertain.
⛪️
Everyone could benefit from reading this book. Throughout our history, politics have been threatening the integrity of religion. America has never been a Christian state and the rise of Christian Nationalism (and this current administration) are a threat to democracy. It was interesting to learn about the beginnings of separation of church and state in this nonfiction text. It starts a bit slow, but picks up towards the end.

CW: religious persecution, death, war

[Beth M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another title that needs to be required reading for Americans in 2026.

America's Best Idea The Separation Between Church And State is a 130 page booklet truncating the history behind how the US (most often the “founding fathers” but with appropriate acknowledgment to Roger Williams and others) came about deciding on the need for the separation of church and state.

Despite what many might say, this booklet expresses quite clearly how the First Amendment has actually kept religion safe in America. Many of that era saw the need to prevent religion from inflicting itself into politics, but just as importantly for politics to not inflict itself into religion. As we have seen this happen with rapid acceleration in the past 10 - 20 years here in the US, it's hard for the more logically minded to ignore how the likes of Williams, Jefferson, Washington, and Adams were correct in that the combining of these forces would be detrimental to the liberties they were hoping to protect.

What I didn't expect to learn is how up until the 1970s, the Baptists had been huge supporters for the separation of church and state. It wasn't until Carter told Falwell and Graham that they could not receive tax payer dollars to fund deliberately segregated private schools that things began to take a turn. The “historian” David Barton helped push this along, followed up by the Reagan era and now Trump, whom Balmer makes an excellent point about how the now president has earned the support of so many evangelicals.

”But the rhetoric of victimization, especially when combined with nostalgia for a supposed halcyon past, is catnip for white evangelicals, and one of the attractions of Donald Trump is that he speaks the language of victimization better than anyone I have ever seen. It's always about him, of course; he's the victim. But evangelicals recognize that vocabulary because the genius of the Religious Right is that its leaders have always portrayed themselves - and by extension, all evangelicals - as marginal and as victims.”

Obviously this isn't the only reason why white evangelicals flock to him as though he were the second coming, but the fact is that we are now here because it has been the sole intention of many to blend these two elements of American life to build a society in which it is even easier to “other” those that do not share the same values.

These are dangerous times. And many Christians and those of any religious belief system don't seem to realize that they could be on the chopping block for not directly adhering to a “status quo” of the new national religion, which really isn't religion at all.

This book brings me back to moments where I've wondered if Christianity has become less of a religion and more of a cultural identity for most Americans. Many who say they are Christian certainly aren't based on their own words and actions. Yet as we look to establish collective religious rhetoric in the most trying times in our history (“Under God” being thrown into the Pledge of Allegiance, or “In God We Trust” on our currency during the Civil War, then mandated during the Cold War) as if public proclamation of faith is all that's needed to earn God's love and favor, it, in my opinion, lends credence to the idea that performance Christianity holds more validity than actual Christianity. One is cultural. The other is faith.

We probably won't see a religiously enlightened America in my lifetime. I worry it will get a lot worse before it gets better. But if the internal structures of organized religions are able to reclaim their beliefs for what they are and not the power (and money!!!) majoritarianism will give them, maybe one day we'll get there.

Edit: Adding this here because it needs to be said that, while many of the men listed in this book and my review were proponents of religious liberties, those ideals obviously ended where whiteness did. Native Americans and Black slaves were not allowed these same freedoms throughout colonization. Even the Mormons were subject to insane levels of discrimination at various points in history.

It goes without say that no system is perfect, but I do wish Balmer would have been a bit more thorough on his historical examination on the failings of where these "liberties" applied.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Balmer would make a stronger argument for the principles he espouses by better concealing his Trump Derangement Syndrome. Since this is just an update of an earlier book, perhaps the next edition could omit his anti-Trump tirades (ranging from a lie count to mention of the "hideous" red caps) and fill that space with something more useful for winning support from across the political aisle. What better way to head off Christian Nationalism within the GOP than to find support among Republican primary voters who agree with the President on taxes and building a border wall, but dissent on knocking down Jefferson's "wall of separation?"

Call me a cynic, but as I see it President Trump, like Reagan before him, modified his views on reproductive rights just in time to win support from the religious right in the race to the White House. They aren't true religious zealots, but watch out -- a successor could be.

I happen to agree with Balmer's understanding of the First Amendment, and issues like government funds supporting religious schools, and keeping prayer out of public ones. This very short book includes many powerful arguments for separation of church and state, fascinating historical background, great quotes from many Founding Fathers, and even a bible verse (Matthew 6:6--) that's relevant.

Important recent history including excerpts from JFK's famous Houston speech, as persuasive now as it was to me then. His detailing of Lyndon Johnson's history (including an honest mention of the dubious election which seated LBJ in Congress in the first place) is the kind of item which could win over skeptics on the right. So why not include other arguments supporting the contemporary case for a restoration of the crumbling wall of separation? Archbishop Hughes' comments in the battle of the bibles is interesting background, but how about today's outspoken Catholic leaders from Washington D.C. to Rome (via Chicago) who weigh in on U.S. public policy, when their support for the territorial integrity of nation states is highly questionable?

Such a learned historian as Professor Balmer would surely be able to give us more about the recent court cases he cites. SCOTUS dissents in the Espinosa case, and legal critiques of it would be useful in building future cases. More particulars on the controversy surrounding the Dobbs decision would be useful, including poll data and State level plebescites. Which new legal avenues will be the most likely to restore reproductive rights? Is there a need for a new scholarly path to undo Leonard Leo's decades long march against reproductive rights? Why is Mr. Leo not even mentioned, since no one has done more to put our laws under the power of sectarian thinking? You don't have to be a lawyer to recognize a religiously-motivated effort to stack and influence the courts. Shouldn't prospective justices be asked about recusing themselves when their beliefs so clearly influence their judgments?

Balmer's concern about the Trump appointments to the Supreme Court would earn wider support if he'd get past the academic/media groupthink about the President himself. Instead, build a case that there are among his supporters many who would separate themselves from rulings which would empower radical Islam, deny basic LGB rights on biblical grounds, and create a nation divided into a sort of Christian Statism (as a step toward Christian Nationalism.)

Christian Nationalism with its limited rights for same sex couples and accidentally pregnant girls should be an issue for Republicans to debate in the 2028 primaries, but state-by-state it's a nearer and more present danger. Academics tend to think in broad terms (there are other ideas vying for America's "best", e.g. economic freedom) but because the religious right is picking off rights one state at a time, Balmer needs to focus more on the 50 state political scoreboards where religiously organized voters are trying to impose their certainty and their will on the rest of us.

[Brett Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Balmer’s book is a short but sufficient response to one of the many branches growing from America’s Nut Tree—the not-so-Christian nationalists who seek to make these unUnited States a Christian theocracy. They claim it was founded as a Christian nation. Not even close. While most of the Colonies were founded by different, often hostile Christian sects, by the time of the Founders, a hundred fifty years later, they’d seen enough of that. “There are, at present, in the adjacent county not less than five or six well-meaning men in close jail for publishing their religious sentiments,” wrote James Madison. “I beg you to pity me, and pray for liberty of conscience to all.” While he maintained that religion aided morality and happiness, he saw evils in state affirmation. “Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption,” he wrote in 1774. George Washington added that he supported separation when he wrote to Methodist bishops, “No one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny and every species of religious persecution.”

The American government would not be a covenant of obedience to a tribal god of a chosen people, but a product of reason. Appeals to supernatural powers for justice fall outside the realm of reason, and gods are as fickle as the people who invent them. But while people worship different gods, they all have a common capacity for reason, regardless of whether or not they employ it. Leave that other stabilizing force of religion—its sentiments of comfort, assurance, and belonging—and a right to it, up to the individual, but don’t run the country with it. Hence, the Founders demoted religion from the position of fact to that of opinion with the First Amendment. Enunciated in its first two clauses; that the U.S. government would establish no religion, and that people were free to whatever religion they choose, later elaborated by Thomas Jefferson in an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut (a valid source for “originalists”), and finally, most conclusively, by the Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the Senate and signed into law by President John Adams, which states, “the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

[Kate Foliage_and_Fiction · Rating 5 out of 5]

4-5 stars (don’t really rate Non-fiction)
Thank you Libro.fm and Pushkin Press for the gifted audio


The supposed remedy is the assertion that the United States is and always has been a Christian nation, with the corollary that anyone who falls outside that designation—immigrants, minorities, those who cannot claim conventional sexual identities—are aliens, entitled at best to second-class status.
Nothing could be more at odds with the nation’s charter documents, which are notable for their protection of minorities. The founders, for all their faults—slaveholding being the most egregious—never intended the United States to be a majoritarian society. They allowed, even cherished, dissent. And throughout our history, sooner or later, we Americans have eventually risen to our better selves—far too slowly in the case of women and people of color—and sought to live up to the standards articulated by the founders.
Although those ideals remain not fully realized, we affirm them nonetheless. I consider myself a patriot—not because I wave flags or wear hideous red caps, but because my sense of American history is that Americans still care about those principles and will eventually find a way to honor them.

This is both a quick and detailed read that explores the connection between the first amendment and religion in the United States.
I think everyone would benefit from reading this book. The history it contains is vital to our country.
An attack on our freedom of speech is an attack on every single person and on democracy itself.

The First Amendment has survived various attempts to subvert it over the years, including legislation that would have designated the United States as a Christian nation. Those who appreciate the beauty of the First Amendment and the prescience of the founders in separating church and state must remain forever vigilant.

[Joshua Hatfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

★★★★★
America’s Best Idea:
The Separation of Church and State
by Randall Balmer

-----
Randall Balmer opens this book with Donald Trump grifting a $59.99 Bible —bundled with the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence —a man documented to have issued over 30,000 false or misleading statements in his first term alone.

Balmer’s observation is surgical: despite —or perhaps because of —the messenger, the message has been amplified.

That’s the whole problem.
And this book is the historical indictment.

-----
Balmer is the John Phillips Professor in Religion at Dartmouth —the college’s oldest endowed chair. He taught American religious history at Columbia for twenty-seven years. He has served as an expert witness in First Amendment cases. He is also an ordained Episcopal priest.

He isn’t an activist.
Not a secularist.
Not someone with an axe to grind.

He’s a historian.
And he has come to lay the receipts on the table —one by one —until there is nowhere left to stand.

-----
The founders weren’t who they’re selling you.

Start with the Treaty of Tripoli. Negotiated under George Washington. Endorsed by John Adams. Ratified “unanimously” by the United States Senate on June 7, 1797.

Article 11:
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

Not a liberal interpretation.
Not taken out of context.
A ratified treaty —somehow absent from every high school civics class in this country.

Balmer goes further.
No founder —with the possible exceptions of John Witherspoon and Benjamin Rush —would qualify for membership in any church now advocating for “Christian” nationalism. Jefferson cut the miracles out of the New Testament. Adams called the doctrine of Jesus-as-deity “the source of almost all Christian corruption.” Madison personally led the charge that defeated Patrick Henry’s bill to designate Christianity as Virginia’s favored religion.

These are the founders David Barton tries to sell us. Barton —the faux historian whose book was pulled by his own conservative publisher, Thomas Nelson, for fabricated quotations —who is still shaping the Texas curriculum, today.

The founders that “Christian” nationalists invoke are fiction. Balmer proves it with primary sources they’d rather you never read.

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The free market nobody wants to credit.

The First Amendment created a free marketplace for religion.
No state-sanctioned faith.
No government thumb on the scale.
Religious entrepreneurs competing openly for followers, converts, tithers, and cultural influence.

No group on earth has ever benefited more from this arrangement than American evangelicals.

Billy Graham. Jerry Falwell. Pat Robertson. Kenneth Copeland. Joel Osteen. Paula White. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Every single one of them built their empire inside the protection of the First Amendment’s free religious marketplace.

The wall of separation didn’t suppress evangelical Christianity.

It made it possible.

And now the very movement that thrived inside that marketplace is working to tear the wall down.

Balmer calls it what it is: a group that has enjoyed extraordinary political power since the late 1970s trying to convert that power into permanent legal dominance —at the expense of everyone else.

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The victimhood machine.

Christian nationalism surges at specific historical moments —the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Cold War, and right now. The pattern is consistent: it activates when white evangelicals are told their cultural dominance is slipping.

The genius of the Religious Right —Balmer is precise about this —is that its leaders have always portrayed themselves as marginal.
Persecuted.
Under siege.
While simultaneously wielding extraordinary political power.

Trump didn’t invent this language. He franchised it. And evangelicals recognize it because the Religious Right wrote the original playbook.

-----
The theological warrant that doesn’t exist.

Jesus, according to the Gospel of John:
“My kingdom is not of this world.”

The Confederacy —NOT the Union —explicitly declared themselves a “Christian nation” in their founding documents. Because the Union refused to.

When someone tells you America was always founded as a “Christian nation” —you now know whose argument you’re actually hearing.

Balmer’s verdict: Christian nationalism doesn’t carry a theological warrant. They’re not reading their book. They’re not living their book. They’re using it as a prop for a political project that the book itself refutes.

-----
The closing argument.

Balmer ends with the constitutional case stated as plainly as it can be:

“We are not a majoritarian society.”

The First Amendment’s prohibition on religious establishment was explicitly a blow against majoritarianism —guaranteeing free exercise to all, including no religion at all. “Christian” nationalism’s fundamental flaw is that it attempts to encode one group’s preferences as law for everyone.

And then Balmer notes —with an almost elegant precision
—that the “God Bless the USA Bible,” apparently includes the Bill of Rights. Which includes the First Amendment. Which says: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.”

Those pushing “Christian” nationalism might want to reacquaint themselves with the first clause of the First Amendment bundled with their product.

-----
Balmer calls himself a patriot —not because he waves flags, but because his reading of American history tells him Americans still care about the founding principles and will eventually find a way to honor them.

He allows that arc.
He cherishes it.

But he is also clear: “Those who understand the beauty of the First Amendment must remain forever vigilant.”

‘America’s Best Idea’ is what vigilance looks like in book form.

Read it alongside April Ajoy’s ‘Star-Spangled Jesus’ for the personal inside account of “Christian” nationalism —and Keri Ladner’s ‘American Dominion’ for the theological genealogy. Together they form a complete indictment: the history, the lived experience, and the documented line from a Maine commune to the Oval Office.

Five stars.
Essential reading.

-----
*Reviewed by Josh A. Hatfield | The Outspoken Lamanite
—author of IRREALITY: Why American “Christian” Nationalism Is Both Anti-Democratic & Anti-Jesus,
and co-host of the Circle the Wagons podcast.

[Christie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small but mighty, this book packs in quite a lot. How our nation was founded (not as a Christian nation), what players (who didn't believe Christianity should be our national religion) were involved in the formation of the "wall between church and state" (crazy SPOILER ALERT - it was the Baptists!) and how religion was allowed to compete on the open marketplace, which is precisely WHY it has been so successful. We were not intended to be a christian nation by force of government. I knew this going in because I have had, like, a history class (that's all it takes), but the religious right is intent in making this place solely their place with no "others" allowed or tolerated. If you already know this and want to read a book that confirms your beliefs, this book will be enjoyable. If you don't already know this, I imagine this book will be a bit more difficult to process. Face it, my dude, you *are* the baddies. Wise up, vote blue, treat others with kindness, don't use kids as bait so you can seize their parents and put them in detention centers, stop killing innocent humans for minor acts of protests. Jesus H. Christ.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readers of Katherine Stewart will recognize the main arguments and of this much shorter book on the role of religion in politics and the dangers of using religious persecution to break down the barriers between church and state.

Balmer takes a historical look at how the pre-Revolution ecumenical leaders (like Baptist Roger Williams) and Revolution-era politicians (like the first four presidents) argued not for religious tolerance — but for religious liberty. The freedom to think and act in any way one’s conscience determines, rather than let anyone (especially the state) dictate how you practice religion — or choose not to. This was enshrined in the First Amendment, an action that Balmer repeatedly argues that became the best thing to possibly happen for all faiths.

That’s kinda the problem with this short book: Balmer repeats the same stories and same points multiple times throughout less than 150 pages of text. So while it’s interesting to see how various politicians and groups have wrestled with religion in statecraft, you also get the point early on.

Still decent … still well-argued … just repetitive.

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very short but very powerful book. I have been told for years that the “separation of church & state” is not in the Constitution & was just a mention in a letter from Thomas Jefferson. However, this book explains how the principal behind the words “separation of church and state” has been a major part of the founding of this country and was something the founders debated and deliberated about finally landing at the wording we have in the Bill of Rights in the very first amendment.

Also, to see how the Baptist denomination alone has changed in the last couple of hundred years in the US is astounding. I knew that Baptists had always been strong supporters of the separation of church and state & that had changed in the 1980’s but I had no idea how strongly their support prior to the 1980’s really was.

“The long sweep of American history amply demonstrates the genius of the First Amendment, this grand experiment of constructing a government without the interlocking apparatus of an established religion.” — Randall Balmer

Content Warnings: politics, religion

[Jared Kolok · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat repetitive (for being such a small, quick read the repetitiveness of, for example and among others, Roger Williams' garden and wilderness quote was frustrating) but quick read that briefly explores the history of "America's Best Idea" in religious liberty encapsulated in the first amendment.

As a political scientist and American politics teacher, this book's main thrust that the US is not a majoritarian country jives with federalism, balanced and separate powers, a republican constitutional government (which protects all citizens from governmental overreach and tyranny), and other fundamental American ideals. Thus, freedom of religion/religious liberty is a uniquely, boldly American idea and, as Balmer contends, one of the best contributions the new world and America has given the old world and Western civilization.

That fact makes the attacks upon it by, as Balmer describes, once fierce defenders (baptists) and the majority who enjoyed success from it (evangelical christians) and rising christian nationalism all the more threatening and existential.

[Rick Elinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This very short book provides the essential facts on the separation of church and state as given by the First Amendment. Balmer argues repetitively that this wall has allowed multiple religions to fluorish. He destroys the arguments that the United States is a "Christian nation" by explicit reading of the texts and treaties of the early republic. That makes the book valuable.

It is however essentially an extended essay which could have been a "New Yorker" article if the many iterations and repetitions were removed. Alternatively, it is surprising that a noted scholar like Balmer did not provide even more information to make this feel like a real book. Perhaps a comparison could have been made to other countries. What about Canada, the country that did not revolt against Great Britain? Is this really a case of American exceptionalism? What other church/state solutions have been made?

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Randall Balmer, a historian and Episcopal priest, argues that the separation of church and state, as enshrined in the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, is the most significant decision enabling the free and fair practice of religion in the United States. In this non-fiction history book, Balmer concisely recounts history and debates related to the separation of church and state from the founding of the nation to today. He also pushes back against some common arguments the Religious Right uses today, including compellingly arguing that the Founding Fathers never intended the United States to be a Christian nation. Well-researched and cited, this book is a quick and accessible introduction to a topic that’s increasingly relevant today.

Thanks to Penguin Random House and Edelweiss for providing me with an eARC!

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book over the span of a day. It’s easy to digest and packed full of historical information defending the First Amendment of the United States, while presenting those facts in contrast to the often told lie that the USA is “a Christian nation, and always has been.” Having been raised on those beliefs, only to be confronted by evidence to the contrary in the course of my life, I found this compilation of historical quotes and research to be refreshing and encouraging. As someone who fully believes in freedom to express oneself either through any religion or through unbelief in any religion, I was glad to see that was indeed the intent of the founders and why they saw necessary to implement the First Amendment at all. This is a book I would recommend for anyone interested in American history and current events in this country to read.