Separation, Please
An Interview with Barry Lynn
by Ron Lindsay
The Reverend Barry Lynn is executive director of the watchdog organization 'Americans United for Church and State' and author of Piety and Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom (Harmony, 2006). He is interviewed by Ron A. Lindsay, Legal Director of the Center for Inquiry / Office of Public Policy in Washington, D.C. – EDS.... political ascendancy of the Republican right.
"I’d also point to the text of the Constitution itself. Nowhere in it does it say we are a Christian nation. The First Amendment bars laws “respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Article VI bans religious tests for public office. That sounds like separation of church and state to me.
"The Religious Right makes the classic mistake every advocate of theocracy in history has made, over and over again. They assume the following: “My faith is the only correct and true one. Therefore, other beliefs are not important, and it’s only logical that the government should adopt my faith. In fact, the government must do so.” Here’s the Achilles’ heel of that assertion: adherents in about 1,500 separate religions around the globe all believe this. They can’t all be right. Jerry Falwell is obviously sincere in his insistence that he has interpreted the Bible correctly, but even some of his fellow fundamentalists disagree with some of his conclusions, and I can guarantee you that not far from where Falwell lives there is a Mormon who is absolutely sure his religion is right. I don’t want to see the government acting as some type of “theology referee,” deciding whose religion is right and whose is wrong."
Full Interview
Bush's Fringe Government (October, 2006)
by Garry Wills
Preface by James Carroll
"How is it possible for minorities to rule majorities? An answer can be found by looking at both George Bush's Republican Party and the Catholic Church."
Bush's Fringe Government "is an inquiry into how an extremely conservative fringe in these organizations, although in the minority, have a disproportionate influence on a broad range of issues, and use their influence to govern the majority. By exploring the ways in which the election of Pope Benedict XVI has increased the influence of very conservative Catholics in the Vatican, Garry Wills offers a lucid and striking explanation of the political coalition between Catholics and evangelicals—a partnership that has been instrumental in electing Republicans in the United States and keeping conservative issues in the forefront of American political discourse. As Wills puts it, "How do you govern an apostate nation? When the entire culture is corrupted, the country can only be morally governed in spite of itself. A collection of aggrieved minorities must seize the levers of power in every way possible. One must govern not from a broad consensual center but from activist fringes of morality."
NYBooks.com
In his book, Bush's Fringe Government ...historian Garry Wills connects the dots between the rubble of our domestic and foreign policies and the actors from the religious fringes that have become central influences in this White House...From stem cell research to end-of-life issues, from the courts to the role of government itself, Wills shows the leadership on a separate track leading away from both the concerns and the will of the people."
The National Catholic Reporter
"Garry Wills, major cultural historian, bestselling author, and public intellectual, is known for his portraits of American presidents at critical junctures in history, and for his searching studies of the history of the Catholic Church."
Among many other awards, Wills is a Pulitzer Prize winner for his Lincoln at Gettysburg.
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