IIDB Archive

I don't find it in there. I don't find Bennett nearly as doctrinaire on this subject as Barton. One indication of that, however reliable or unreliable a measure it may be, is his supportive blurb on the dust jacket of Steven Waldman's modest approach in Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the ...

The book is in my library. I'll check it out.

Toto, You've got me there, because I haven't read them, and verv's anecdote gives me even more pause to doubt those who are so vehemently against these books (such as my not-soon-enough-to-be-ex-wife, God bless her Pentecostal ass). And you do raise a good point--we can't pull Aesop's Fables, etc. f...

WT, None of the books you names are religious books, per se. reading them would not constitute prosyletizing, and there's no real chance that they would be considered such, except possibly by the very far right wingnuts, who could opt out. I don't consider myself a far right wingnut but I would invi...

I'm afraid not. It was in a hardbound edition of The Language of Power: A Sourcebook of Early American Constitutional History or some such subtitle. Lotsa good stuff in there including Madison's speech against the National Bank and Jefferson's input to President Washington re same. The only other ed...

car,

Thanks very much. I certainly don't dispute any of what you've said. And if I had thought about it (Duh! I certainly knew better) I would have remembered that Congress/the Senate has no power to change a treaty.

BTW, I didn't finish reading Madison's Report last night, will do so tonight.

I don't recur to the Treaty of Tripoli as a source for either side, as I've seen arguments on both sides, such as that that language was removed from the final version I may be wrong. I just checked the Avalon website and found that language in the Treaty posted there, would assume it is the final.

SLD, You're correct, that I was referring to the Founding period. I just want you to know that I'm hurt :crying: that you lumped me together with the Barton-ites. We've talked about that before. Acutally, I differ with them in that I don't believe that the Biblical influence was nearly as explicit a...

SLD, Thanks VERY much for the response and the information. The dichotomy you raise is very interesting (and I must admit I had forgotten we had talked about it). I will definitely keep an eye open for this perspective in future readings of the Founders, am quite interested in James Burgh's view on ...

ninewands, Have read a pretty good amount of both, but I disagree, at least as to Madison, though there are quotes on both sides of that question from him. Certainly Jefferson's "the earth belongs to the living" idea would support your position but that view was certainly not predominant a...