Ten Tortured Words: How the Founding Fathers Tried to Protect Religion in America . . . and What's Happened Since

Based on an intriguing examination of the First Amendment, Ten Tortured Words embodies centuries of diverse American legal ideas on the role of religion in our society. The First Amendment to the Constitution is one of the most fascinating, misunderstood, controversial, and defining sentences in American history. It has also undergone more transformation as a principle of law than any other intention of the Founding Fathers of this country. As important as this single Constitutional sentence is, few Americans know what it says, much less what it means and when it came into being. Ten Tortured Words combines extensive historical and legal research with interviews of contemporary thinkers and American voices, yet is practical in its examination of religion in society.