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 listeners 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, Historical, Book Club

Audible Audio

Published June 24, 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 McMahon · 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.

[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!

[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.

[Sarah Miller · 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 :|

[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

[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.”

[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

[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

[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.

[Michael Brandt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had I known this was really one of those 120 page pamphlets I wouldn't have picked up. Not a fan of authors who think their readers just needs to understand 5 quick historical corrections to finally come to the light and see the world through the correct lens.

Balmer really lost me with claims such as: “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.” Is this really sincere and honest cultural analysis? He and I might actually agree with 90% of his book, but the remaining 10% is so full of shallow and trivial assumptions about how someone’s sincerely held beliefs might play out in the public sphere.

[Jordan Bettinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Jefferson reflected on the great American experiment of separating Church & State. "Our country has been the first to prove to the world two truths, the most salutary to human society. That man can govern himself and that religious freedom is the most effective anodyne against religious dissension" he wrote. Jefferson pointed out what many Americans then and now would regard as a paradox. The maxims of civil government being reversed. In that, of religion where its true form is, divided we stand, united we fall."

[Michael McEwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise history of the separation of church and state in America. Chapters deal specifically with a figure and/or document that shows how the founders viewed separation as critical to building and enduring nation. America has always consisted of a blend of beliefs and the author shows how the establishment clause and other acts helped foster religion. A compelling read and a critical civic lesson in the face of rising Christian nationalism.

[Ashley White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you, Libro.fm, for early access to this audiobook.
A fascinating and well-researched look at the intersection of religion and government in the U.S. I enjoyed the way Randall Balmer explained the topic in a way that didn't feel overbearing or academic for the sake of sounding smart.
A quick and informative read for anyone who wants a broader understanding of church and state in U.S. history.

[kim♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

quick and informative read. The first amendment is so important especially now and this book goes into detail specifically about freedom of religion and the origins of this clause. Each historical snippets tell a story, disproving the common argument that the U.S. is a christian nation. Ends on an important critique of modern christians, both evangelists and baptists, and their right wing allies.

[Jeni Enjaian · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Actual rating: 4.5 stars)
In this time of the rise of Christian Nationalism, this book is needed more now than ever. Randall Balmer succinctly and thoroughly describes the origin of the well-documented separation of church and state in the nascent United States as well as many of the challenges to this idea that have arisen throughout the country's history. I highly recommend this book.

[Leah Hortin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This topic is so important... I feel like this book should have been twice as long. It barely scrapes the surface of modern day issues. I was hoping to see something about Kennedy vs BSD. Also the audio on the ALC was poor - the volume dropped a few times, and the rustling of pages was evident and distracting.

[Olivia Critchlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.
-Thomas Jefferson

This is a great history on the founding ideas behind the separation of church and state, filled with quotes and support from the founding fathers.

An incredibly important read when Christian Nationalism is reaching peak levels once again.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written and easily read, you don’t need a history degree to understand it. It is very clear in the foundation of the United States and those, who over the years, have sought to tear down the First Amendment, the Establishment Clause and the Johnson Amendment.

If you cherish our separation of church and state, this is a must read!

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed listening to this one. It was super interesting about the history behind having separate church and state. We often hear that America has always been a Christian nation, when that simply isn’t the case. This was a short one, but powerful. Highly recommend.

I received an early listening copy from Libro.fm. All opinions are my own

[Jordan Pelfrey-Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lays everything out in a way that feels grounded and urgent without ever getting preachy, and it makes the whole idea of church and state separation feel both obvious and somehow newly eye opening. It’s the kind of book that makes you understand how we got here and why it all still matters right now. Really informative but also genuinely engaging.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking for a source outlining the value of the establishment clause of the first amendment, read this book.

If you're looking for just such a source and can't commit to reading this slim volume, at least read the six page Afterword, which lays it all out in a complete, yet abbreviated manner.

For anyone interested in the separation of church and state.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book about the separation between church and state and why it's vital. Covers from the founding fathers' perspective through the present day.
Thank you to Libro.fm for the complementary audiobook.