Description
Interest is keen regarding the role of religion in the founding of America and the religious faith, or lack thereof, of the Founding Fathers. Much of this is fueled by socio-political agendas, in which advocates are seeking validation by assertions of analogous political beliefs in documents of our founding. But it is complicated! Author Randall Terry is credited with the statement: “He who frames the question wins the debate.” In this class we will consider the framing of this question and the implications of the terms used. We will explore the nature of and influence of religious ideas in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the context and wording of the First Amendment. The intent is to be informative rather than argumentative and to observe that complicated questions have complicated answers.