Under God
George Washington and the Question of Church and State
Tara Ross
Joseph C. Smith Jr.
9780977072217
pages
Colonial Press L.p.
Overview
No American living in 1800 would have predicted that Thomas Jefferson's idiosyncratic views on church and state would ever eclipse those of George Washington, let alone become constitutional dogma. Yet today's Supreme Court guards no doctrine more fiercely than Jefferson's antagonistic wall of separation between church and state. Washington's sharply contrasting views, explored in this path-breaking book, suggest a more reasonable interpretation of the First Amendment, one that is consistent with religion's importance to the enterprise of democracy.
Author Bio
Tara Ross, the author of Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College (2004), is a graduate of Rice University and the University of Texas School of Law. She lives in Dallas and writes on legal and public policy issues. Joseph C. Smith Jr. is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Chicago Law School. A former deputy attorney general of Colorado, he practices law in Denver.
