James M Volo

The God of Democracy: Religion in Revolutionary America James M Volo

Publisher Marketing: There is a great need today for Americans to further their understanding of the role religion has played in the establishment of the government of the United States. Religion today is viewed with a somewhat benevolent agnosticism by many elected officials and some of its citizens, yet it was important enough to America's founders to reside in the first amendment to the Bill of Rights. Contrary to comments suggesting that Americans cling to their Bibles as a way to explain their frustrations concerning race, immigration, or the economy, religion has been a critical foundation stone of the nation since before the Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution had come to pass. In the Declaration of Independence, American revolutionaries had relied on the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God to justify and underwrite their separation from Britain. By offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British Crown, religion played a major role in the American Revolution-an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God. The similarities between the situation in pre-revolutionary America and the United States today are striking for any honest observer. In almost every case a widespread and unremitting contempt for established authority coupled with a libertarian leave-me-alone attitude seems best to unify many of the cross-generational attitudes toward government passed down throughout these histories.