Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence [Paperback]

Alan Dershowitz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470281685 | ISBN-13: 978-0470281680 | Publication Date: June 16, 2008 | Edition: 1

In Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence, author Alan Dershowitz proves that no relation exists between the Declaration of Independence’s “Creator and “Nature’s God,” on the one hand, and the Judeo-Christian God of the Old and New Testaments, on the other hand. Learn about the religious right’s goal to Christianize America by using the Declaration of Independence and arguing that this document proves that the United States was founded on Biblical law. Understand everything from the argument to the documentation that Dershowitz uses to disprove this historical distortion.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This author, if it needs explaining, is a renowned lawyer and Harvard law professor, author of several best-selling books, and an abiding advocate and defender of personal rights and freedoms. Although he never shies away from taking controversial positions, he supports those stands in clear prose. All these aspects hold true in his new book, which begins boldly: "The Religious Right is engaged in a crusade to convert the United States into a Christian theocracy based on the Bible and, more specifically, on the divine authority of Jesus Christ." Dershowitz accuses the Religious Right of using words and phrases found in the Declaration of Independence as indications that the founding of the nation--the intentions of our Founding Fathers, that is--was based on Christian precepts. The major step he takes in refuting this idea, which he finds dangerous, is to negate the concept that the Declaration, despite such language as "Creator" and "Divine Providence," is a document of equal legal state to the Constitution. The Declaration is indeed a vital document but one for all freedom-loving people who cherish the separation of church and state. This book will prompt intense dialogue--surely the author's intention. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"This is an engaging refutation of an insidious form of 'political correctness' of the right - the nonsensical idea that our country was founded on Christian principles. Anyone, left or right, who admires the foundations of American democracy will enjoy this spirited reminder of the Founding Fathers' true genius." - Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor, Harvard University, author of The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and The Stuff of Thought

"The wall of separation between church and state is one of the great barriers to religious tyranny. Among the wall's most articulate defenders is Dershowitz, who shows in this readable book why the authors of our Declaration feared theocracy and favored democracy." - Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law at New York Law School and President of the American Civil Liberties Union

"Blasphemy proves that many Christians are as deliberatly bewildered about the history of our nation as they are about the evolution of life on this planet. Dershowitz has done a great service in rescuing Jefferson, Adams, and the other founding fathers from the religious delusions of the Christian Right. This book will strike a great blow to the forces of theocracy in the United States." - Sam Harris author of the New York Times Best-Sellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation

"Blasphemy is a brilliant, well-researched critique of the Religious Right's 'Christian Nation' mythology and its misuse of the American historical record. Just as significant, Professor Dershowitz illuminates the open hostility and vitriol this movement routinely exhibits toward all, religious or secular, who dare to challenge its faulty conclusions." - Barry W. Lynn, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (June 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470281685
• ISBN-13: 978-0470281680
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ is a Brooklyn native who has been called 'the nation's most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer' and one of its 'most distinguished defenders of individual rights,' 'the best-known criminal lawyer in the world,' 'the top lawyer of last resort,' and 'America's most public Jewish defender.' He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Dershowitz, a graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale Law School, joined the Harvard Law School faculty at age 25 after clerking for Judge David Bazelon and Justice Arthur Goldberg. While he is known for defending clients such as Anatoly Sharansky, Claus von B'low, O.J. Simpson, Michael Milken and Mike Tyson, he continues to represent numerous indigent defendants and takes half of his cases pro bono. Dershowitz is the author of 20 works of fiction and non-fiction, including 6 bestsellers. His writing has been praised by Truman Capote, Saul Bellow, David Mamet, William Styron, Aharon Appelfeld, A.B. Yehoshua and Elie Wiesel. More than a million of his books have been sold worldwide, in numerous languages, and more than a million people have heard him lecture around the world. His most recent nonfiction titles are The Case For Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can be Resolved (August 2005, Wiley); Rights From Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights (November 2004, Basic Books), The Case for Israel (September 2003, Wiley), America Declares Independence, Why Terrorism Works, Shouting Fire, Letters to a Young Lawyer, Supreme Injustice, and The Genesis of Justice. His novels include The Advocate's Devil and Just Revenge. Dershowitz is also the author of The Vanishing American Jew, The Abuse Excuse, Reasonable Doubts, Chutzpah (a #1 bestseller), Reversal of Fortune (which was made into an Academy Award-winning film), Sexual McCarthyism and The Best Defense.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Though he misses the forest for the trees, this is still a fascinating nature walk, December 2, 2007

By 

Scott Bresinger (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence (Hardcover)

Alan Dershowitz, celebrity lawyer and frequent cable news talking head, has in "Blasphemy" used his estimable legal skills to create a necessary answer to the Christian right (the so-called "religious right" in this country is almost entirely Christian, and Protestant at that), who have lately taken to claiming one of the nation's founding documents to be implicitly, if not overtly, Christian in nature. This, of course, is the legal front of their overall "wedge" strategy to finally make fundamentalism the law of the land. Needless to say, this would endanger the liberties (and maybe even the lives) of the vast majority of Americans, no matter their belief system, or lack thereof. Although in length (less than 200 pages) and often in tone, Mr. Dershowitz clearly intended this book as a broadside, he also wants to ask broader legal questions and examine the "morality" that should be inherent in a secular nation. In the end, he may be misinterpreting the overall strategy of his opponents, but this is still a worthwhile and thought-provoking read.

In the first section, he examines the history and creation of the Declaration of Independence, gathering in impressive yet concise detail, the evidence that the Founding Fathers, in particular Thomas Jefferson, clearly intended a radical break from British law, to the extent that America would refuse to establish itself as Church-based. They were Deists, who while perhaps believing in some sort of deity, didn't accept the Christian version at all. The wording of the Declaration, with its references to a "Creator" or "Nature's God," was in fact a way to avoid using specifically Christian iconography. This was eventually crystalized in the Constitution, which acknowleged no divine authority at all.

In the second section, Dershowitz examines the words and actions of the Christian right itself. In his view, they intend to re-establish America as a kind of democratic theocracy, where minority faiths are technically allowed, but effectively voiceless. Unfortunately, he focuses too much on Alan Keyes, who although a persistent advocate of faith-based government, is essentially not a major threat in terms of power or influece. Important players in the movement, such as James Dobson, Tim LaHaye and Paul Weyrich are barely even mentioned, much less examined. Although Mr. Dershowitz has a clear grasp of many of their legal arguments, this oversight is a troubling harbinger of his overall understanding of the movement itself (for a more comprehensive journalistic approach, read Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism).

It's in the final section of the book where Mr. Dershowitz attempts to contribute his own ideas to the debate. He looks at the language of the Declaration from a legal standpoint and asks critical questions about phrases like "Nature's God" and "Natural," as opposed to "Positive" law. He even goes so far as to critcize the founders themselves for not realizing the full implications of their words. He also goes back to a newspaper column he wrote in 1984 called "The Ten Commandments for Politicians," which laid out some suggestions for how candidates should address issues of faith. Many of these seem eerily prescient, considering the tone of the current campaign for president: "Do not publicly proclaim your religious devotion, affiliation or practices, or attack those of your opponents;" "Do not surround your political campaign with religious trappings or symbols;" "Do not seek the support of religious leaders who impose religious obligations on members of their faith to support or oppose particular candidates." Here, Dershowitz could be talking to or about anyone from Barack Obama to John McCain; Hillary Clinton to Rudolph Giuliani.

The problem I have with the book is that for all his legal acumen, Dershowitz finally fails to realize that the Christian Right doesn't actually care about the Declaration; they certainly have no interest in the "godless" Constitution. They just want to re-format their ideas to make them stand in court, whether they be local districts to possibly the Supreme Court itself (Justice Scalia can certainly be counted as one of their friends, even if he is Catholic). Frankly, it's almost comforting that they wish to stage only a legal coup, as opposed to something more physically demonstrative. Dershowitz's comeback, therefore, is designed with the courts in mind. Any counter-tactic he can offer will only be legal as well. The root question of how a pluralistic democracy can deal with anti-democratic fundamentalist ideologies is somewhat foreign to him, and his book suffers as a result. Nevertheless, this is still worth your time, given its size and considered within its scope.

29 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Freedom from religion, June 5, 2007

By 

Joshua Dunn (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence (Hardcover)

The thoroughly ad hominem rant by FBRobertson completely misses the point. Dershowitz is not attacking Christians, but the encroachment of religious belief on a secular democracy. The Christian circles that Robertson claims to travel in may not champion a theocracy, but many other Christians do. Dershowitz points out the Bush administration's creation of an Office of Community and Faith-based initiatives--a federal program designed to give millions of dollars to mostly Christian organizations. Their abstinence only approach to sex ed was dangerously ineffective where so much money was spent and to such little effect. Intelligent Design proponents are attempting to inject their beliefs in the science classroom in places such as Dover, PA and Kansas. And graduates from a 4th tier school like Regent Law get top job in the Justice Dept a la Monica Goodling. Competance and experience clearly have taken a backseat to cronyism and religious considerations.

This persecuation mentality would be funny if it wasn't so hypocritical. Christians love to pretend they are under attack in this country. If anything, the opposite is true--secular values are being erroded by theistic beliefs. FBRobertson seems to believe that Christians are morally superior to anyone else. Read some research by born-again sociologist George Barna that shows believers are no better off. Indeed, more secularized nations have lower rates of socially undesirable characteristics.

Robertson's review quickly devolves into a pro-religious diatribe that accuses humanists and agnostics of bitterness and hatred after, ironically enough, falsely accusing authors like Harris and Dawkins of wanting to send Christians to concentration camps...espescially shameful considering Dershowitz's judaism.

Dershowitz's elegant prose shows the dangers of imposing a narrow view of morality. Our secular laws are based on the human principle of justice for all. Religious neutrality offends no one and protects everyone.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just in time for Independence Day!, June 20, 2008

By 

Tim Beazley - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence (Paperback)

For the past few decades, the Religious Right has been trying to weaken, if not eradicate, the wall of separation between church and state. In their attacks, it is common for them to argue that the U.S. is a "Christian nation," "founded on Judeo-Christian morality," etc.; and they frequently buttress their arguments by citing the references in the Declaration of Independence to "Nature's God" and "Creator." Dershowitz shows that those arguments, including the references to the DOI, are badly misguided.

In the first two chapters, Dershowitz shows that both the historical context of the DOI and the numerous statements of some of the most influential figures of the period make it clear that organized Christianity was not a significant, positive influence on the DOI. He also shows that the references in the DOI to "Nature's God" and "Creator" meant something radically different in the 1700s from what the naive literalists in the Religious Right claim. Obviously, those present serious problems for the Religious Right's arguments.

The third chapter discusses the "natural law" concepts that are so prominent in the DOI. This was my favorite part of the book. First, natural law is not dependent on revelation, so that's a problem for the Religious Right right there. Second, it's not clear that natural law is a useful, much less valid, analytical concept to begin with. Dershowitz's discussion of the analytical problems in natural law arguments was very interesting.

The book is very short, but it provides a wealth of historical detail and analysis, and in a very readable style. I recommend it highly.