[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f62s9gpwZaBqyG_UGfGp72ZfuCvfgqP9XjZOXjRiVwyw":3,"$foFraNKpiv86aGDzm-76QMvjtZsvKHAYUY95S1yakfYs":16},{"author":4,"tags":11},{"author_id":5,"author_name":6,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"bio":9,"short_bio":9,"slug":10,"image_url":9},82976,"Steven Waldman","S",7,null,"steven-waldman",[12],{"tag_id":13,"tag_name":14,"tag_count":15},23126,"religious-freedom",5,{"quotes":17,"pagination":133},[18,30,49,68,83,100,119],{"id":19,"quote_text":20,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":23,"source":24,"quote_tag":25,"commentary":29},745351,"The New World was settled [by Europeans] to promote Christianity. For more than 150 years, colonial governments actively supported the dominant faith. Less acknowledged today is a point well understood by the Founding Fathers: Nearly all of these experiments in state encouragement of religion failed.",2,false,{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[26],{"id":27,"tag":28},3576968,{"id":13,"tag_name":14},"**The Backstory**\nThis quote from Steven Waldman, likely dates back to his research on the early American colonies. As a historian, Waldman has spent considerable time studying the complex relationship between religion and governance in the 17th and 18th centuries. During this period, the European settlers in North America sought to establish a society based on their Christian faith, which often led to conflicts with indigenous peoples and other settlers who held different beliefs.\n\n**The Hidden Insight**\nThe counter-intuitive truth in this quote lies in the fact that the Founding Fathers, often revered for their promotion of religious freedom, were actually aware of the failures of state-sponsored Christianity. This paradox highlights the tension between the desire for a unified faith and the need for individual liberty, a tension that continues to shape American society today. By acknowledging the failures of state encouragement of religion, Waldman reveals a more nuanced understanding of the Founding Fathers' intentions, one that balances the importance of religious freedom with the need for a functioning, secular government.\n\n**How to Use This**\nTo apply this insight today, modern professionals and creatives can benefit from recognizing the limitations of forced or state-sponsored unity. Instead of trying to impose a single, dominant faith or ideology, they can focus on creating inclusive environments that respect diverse perspectives, acknowledging that true freedom and creativity often arise from the intersections and tensions between different worldviews.",{"id":31,"quote_text":32,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":33,"source":34,"quote_tag":35,"commentary":9},733822,". 'In religion itself there is nothing mysterious to its author,' Madison wrote in 1792. 'The mystery lies in the dimness of the human sight.' If it is ultimately impossible for mortals to know God's mind, the history of persecution becomes cosmically tragic - two thousand years of dogmatic men burning one another over religious ideas whose veracity only God can know.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[36,41,46],{"id":37,"tag":38},3549266,{"id":39,"tag_name":40},102,"religion",{"id":42,"tag":43},3549268,{"id":44,"tag_name":45},19313,"religious-tolerance",{"id":47,"tag":48},3549267,{"id":13,"tag_name":14},{"id":50,"quote_text":51,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":52,"source":53,"quote_tag":54,"commentary":9},683012,"The mind, as Jefferson reminded us, is the only oracle God gave us. Jefferson wanted people less dependent on the Bible; I would extend the idea, and urge us to be less dependent on Jefferson. Many modern church-state questions fall into a constitutional gray zone, and squinting at the founding documents with greater intensity will not change that.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[55,58,63],{"id":56,"tag":57},3416870,{"id":39,"tag_name":40},{"id":59,"tag":60},3416868,{"id":61,"tag_name":62},9333,"church-and-state",{"id":64,"tag":65},3416869,{"id":66,"tag_name":67},9478,"constitution",{"id":69,"quote_text":70,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":71,"source":72,"quote_tag":73,"commentary":9},682997,"The Founding Faith, then, was not Christianity, and it was not secularism. It was religious liberty—a revolutionary formula for promoting faith by leaving it alone.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[74,77,80],{"id":75,"tag":76},3416818,{"id":61,"tag_name":62},{"id":78,"tag":79},3416819,{"id":66,"tag_name":67},{"id":81,"tag":82},3416820,{"id":13,"tag_name":14},{"id":84,"quote_text":85,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":86,"source":87,"quote_tag":88,"commentary":9},624193,"In light of the unbroken record of invoking God's name in foundational documents throughout the world, throughout the colonies, and throughout history, the stubborn refusal of the US Constitution to invoke the Almighty is abnormal, historic, radical, and not accidental. But liberals miss a basic point, too: The framers of the Constitution were not contemplating the role of \"government\" in religion. They were debating the role of the national government in religion.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[89,94,97],{"id":90,"tag":91},3242519,{"id":92,"tag_name":93},4954,"government",{"id":95,"tag":96},3242517,{"id":61,"tag_name":62},{"id":98,"tag":99},3242518,{"id":66,"tag_name":67},{"id":101,"quote_text":102,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":103,"source":104,"quote_tag":105,"commentary":9},609380,"Long before Emma Lazarus welcomed the tired and poor, Washington declared that the 'bosom of America [was] open to receive, the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions, whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[106,111,116],{"id":107,"tag":108},3193440,{"id":109,"tag_name":110},4452,"immigration",{"id":112,"tag":113},3193439,{"id":114,"tag_name":115},17984,"immigrants",{"id":117,"tag":118},3193441,{"id":13,"tag_name":14},{"id":120,"quote_text":121,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":122,"source":123,"quote_tag":124,"commentary":9},604329,"Jefferson believed that a secret to religious freedom was destroying the concept of heresy, the crime of expressing unauthorized religious thought. And he cared deeply - personally, passionately - about heresy because, in the context of his times, Thomas Jefferson as a heretic, and wanted to live in a nation that tolerated men like him.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[125,130],{"id":126,"tag":127},3177239,{"id":128,"tag_name":129},4225,"heresy",{"id":131,"tag":132},3177240,{"id":13,"tag_name":14},{"currentPage":134,"totalPages":134,"totalItems":8,"itemsPerPage":135},1,10]