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Ten Tortured Words: How the Founding Fathers Tried to Protect Religion in America . . . and What's Happened Since
A Thomas Nelson Kindle book. Based on an intriguing examination of the First Amendment, Ten Tortured Words embodies centuries of diverse American legal ideas on the role of religion in our society. The First Amendment to the Constitution is one of the most fascinating, misunderstood, controversial, and defining sentences in American history. It has also undergone more transformation as a principle of law than any other intention of the Founding Fathers of this country. As important as this single Constitutional sentence is, few Americans know what it says, much less what it means and when it came into being. Ten Tortured Words combines extensive historical and legal research with interviews of contemporary thinkers and American voices, yet is practical in its examination of religion in society.
267 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2007
10 people are currently reading
183 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Mansfield
96 books158 followersStephen Mansfield is a New York Times bestselling author and a popular speaker who is becoming one of the nation’s most respected voices on religion and American culture. He is also an activist in a variety of social causes.
Stephen was born in Georgia but grew up largely in Europe due to his father’s career as an officer in the United States Army. After a youth filled with sports, travel, and mischief, he was recruited to play college football but turned down the opportunity when a Christian conversion moved him to attend a leading Christian college.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy and then moved to Texas where he pastored a church, completed two Master’s degrees, hosted a radio show and began acquiring a reputation as a popular speaker of both depth and humor. He moved to Tennessee in 1991 where he again pastored a church, did relief work among the Kurds in Northern Iraq, served as a political consultant, and completed a doctorate.
It was during this time that he also launched the writing career for which he has become internationally known. His first book on Winston Churchill was a Gold Medallion Award Finalist. He also wrote widely-acclaimed biographies of Booker T. Washington and George Whitefield as well as a number of other books on history and leadership. In 1997, the Governor of Tennessee commissioned Mansfield to write the official history of religion in Tennessee for that state’s bicentennial.
In 2002, Stephen left the pastorate after twenty fruitful years to write and lecture full-time. Not long afterward he wrote The Faith of George W. Bush, which spent many weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and won numerous national awards. The book also became a source for Oliver Stone’s internationally acclaimed film W, which chronicled Bush’s rise to the presidency.
This international bestseller led to a string of influential books over the following eight years. Stephen wrote The Faith of the American Soldier after being embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. He also wrote about the new Pope in Benedict XVI: His Life and Mission. His book The Faith of Barack Obama was another international bestseller and was often a topic in major media during the presidential campaign of 2008. To answer the crumbling values of portions of corporate America, he wrote The Search for God and Guinness and soon found himself speaking to corporate gatherings around the world.
Stephen continues to write books about faith and culture—recently on topics like Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey and America’s generals—but beyond his writing career he has founded The Mansfield Group, a successful consulting and communications firm, as well as Chartwell Literary Group, a firm that creates and manages literary projects. Together with his wife, Beverly, Mansfield has created The Global Leadership Development Fund, a foundation that sponsors leadership training and networking around the world.
In recent years, Stephen’s popularity as a speaker has nearly eclipsed his reputation as a bestselling author. He is often to be found addressing a university gathering, a corporate retreat or a fundraising banquet and stirring his audience with the humor and storytelling that have become his trademark.
Mansfield lives primarily in Nashville, Tennessee, with his beloved wife, Beverly, who is an award-winning songwriter and producer. For more information, log onto MansfieldGroup.com.
Stephen was born in Georgia but grew up largely in Europe due to his father’s career as an officer in the United States Army. After a youth filled with sports, travel, and mischief, he was recruited to play college football but turned down the opportunity when a Christian conversion moved him to attend a leading Christian college.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy and then moved to Texas where he pastored a church, completed two Master’s degrees, hosted a radio show and began acquiring a reputation as a popular speaker of both depth and humor. He moved to Tennessee in 1991 where he again pastored a church, did relief work among the Kurds in Northern Iraq, served as a political consultant, and completed a doctorate.
It was during this time that he also launched the writing career for which he has become internationally known. His first book on Winston Churchill was a Gold Medallion Award Finalist. He also wrote widely-acclaimed biographies of Booker T. Washington and George Whitefield as well as a number of other books on history and leadership. In 1997, the Governor of Tennessee commissioned Mansfield to write the official history of religion in Tennessee for that state’s bicentennial.
In 2002, Stephen left the pastorate after twenty fruitful years to write and lecture full-time. Not long afterward he wrote The Faith of George W. Bush, which spent many weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and won numerous national awards. The book also became a source for Oliver Stone’s internationally acclaimed film W, which chronicled Bush’s rise to the presidency.
This international bestseller led to a string of influential books over the following eight years. Stephen wrote The Faith of the American Soldier after being embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. He also wrote about the new Pope in Benedict XVI: His Life and Mission. His book The Faith of Barack Obama was another international bestseller and was often a topic in major media during the presidential campaign of 2008. To answer the crumbling values of portions of corporate America, he wrote The Search for God and Guinness and soon found himself speaking to corporate gatherings around the world.
Stephen continues to write books about faith and culture—recently on topics like Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey and America’s generals—but beyond his writing career he has founded The Mansfield Group, a successful consulting and communications firm, as well as Chartwell Literary Group, a firm that creates and manages literary projects. Together with his wife, Beverly, Mansfield has created The Global Leadership Development Fund, a foundation that sponsors leadership training and networking around the world.
In recent years, Stephen’s popularity as a speaker has nearly eclipsed his reputation as a bestselling author. He is often to be found addressing a university gathering, a corporate retreat or a fundraising banquet and stirring his audience with the humor and storytelling that have become his trademark.
Mansfield lives primarily in Nashville, Tennessee, with his beloved wife, Beverly, who is an award-winning songwriter and producer. For more information, log onto MansfieldGroup.com.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 12, 2022
"Religion and Virtue are the only Foundations, not only of Republicanism and of all free Government, but of social felicity under all Governments and in all combinations of human Society." - John Adams. This is truly one of the best books I have read on the First Amendment. I think this book should be required reading for everyone. It is straightforward, easy-to-read, and chock-full of footnotes referencing historical documents and foundational decisions central to American Jurisprudence to back up Mansfield's writing. This is one I will keep on my shelf to reference. My only note is that a few legal cases Mansfield references as "yet-to-be-decided" at the time this book was published have since been decided. I think it would be wonderful if this book was updated a bit.
September 25, 2008
It's obvious he has an "ax to grind" - but it's an important ax and he backs up his theories with historical background. This is a history of the Establishment Clause - and a pretty persuasive argument that we've spent that last half-century in a bad, bad place when it comes to the roles of religion & government.
August 1, 2025
Finally, the incorporation of history in this long debate. The Founders could not make the language any clearer and yet some choose to project unaffiliated interpretations onto it.
The book provides a deeper look at the history of the First Amendment enlightening the reader with historical background and then introducing the legal absurdity of the twentieth century.
The book provides a deeper look at the history of the First Amendment enlightening the reader with historical background and then introducing the legal absurdity of the twentieth century.
February 14, 2021
Covers a great deal of legal history in the US and reads easily, but misses the point or offers misleading information on a few topics.
June 5, 2010
A fine book. It gives a practical education on what the first amendment is truly about and how it's very words are so misinterpreted and shrouded by a phrase that was never part of the Constitution let alone the Bill of Rights. Maybe Mr. Jefferson would applaud this masterpiece.
October 17, 2016
This book was all about the "establishment clause" in the first amendment in the Bill of Rights. Some things the author said made sense, but he definitely had his own axe to grind.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews