Believers, Thinkers, and Founders

February 8, 2016
In a time of increasing questions about God’s place in America, Hasson, founder and president emeritus of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, provides a history of how the U.S. came to be—and still can be—called “one nation under God.” From Aristotle to the present, he examines how governments have acknowledged the existence of God, even if not all citizens share that belief. Hasson (The Right to Be Wrong) provides insight into the teachings and popular thought that helped shape the opinions of the Founding Fathers, who didn’t all agree on theology but who collectively believed that citizens’ rights in the new nation were bestowed by a creator. The phrase under God was not new to them: it predated the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock by 400 years. This concept has been affirmed by presidents in their inauguration speeches and by states adopting their own constitutions, and it has successfully survived legal challenges by those who would like to eradicate it from the pledge of allegiance. It is a phrase that remains relevant today as it suggests that our rights do not come from government alone, implying limits to government powers. Hasson formulates a strong argument for the philosophical—rather than theological—place of “under God” in American culture.

May 1, 2016

Hasson (founder, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; The Right To Be Wrong) takes a lawyer's perspective on American self-identity, which emanates from the First Amendment's assertion of our inalienable rights as "one nation under God." He asks fundamental questions, such as which God secures these rights? Can we ground our rights in the notion of a creator without slipping down the slope toward theocracy? His answers are no one's God, and yes. That is, the American experience itself is an exercise in philosophical theism, in which it is the government's role to acknowledge and defend individual expression, thus freeing people from the claims of any one religious truth. Whether this argument is convincing remains to be seen; believers and nonbelievers alike have plenty to contend with here. VERDICT For Hasson, this recommended account is the ultimate story of the United States; the heart of American exceptionalism; the idea that the laws of this country were conceived in liberty and that equality among citizens is a philosophical truth.--SC

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