This is especially good as it discusses the phony Patrick Henry quotation I've seen endlessly repeated. A taste:
Patrick Henry once said, "It cannot be emphasized too
strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by
religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of
Jesus Christ!" Or at least many evangelicals believe Henry said that. It
is actually a line from a 1956 magazine article commenting on Henry's
faith, but popular Christian writers
subsequently attributed the quote to Henry himself. The misquote stuck.
Even though countless websites have debunked it, this bogus statement
still routinely appears everywhere from Twitter to Facebook to books on
America's founding, including presidential aspirant Newt Gingrich's A Nation Like No Other. And Gingrich has a Ph.D. in history!
The eager reception of spurious quotes about our Christian origins is
telling. It illustrates the fact that religion's role in the founding is
among the most controversial historical debates in America today. Into
that debate enters David Aikman's One Nation Without God? The Battle for Christianity in an Age of Unbelief (Baker). ...
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