Celebrating the 250th: One Nation Under Siege: The First Amendment and the Perils of Christian Nationalism

Join Randall Balmer, Professor of Religion at Dartmouth, for a discussion of the First Amendment in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This program will be hybrid: attend in person in the Mayer Room, or register for the Zoom invitation here. The First Amendment, a concession to religious pluralism, is under attack as never before in our history. Christian nationalists, those who claim that the United States is and always has been a Christian nation, are seeking to undermine the separation of church and state, which has ensured the vitality of the religious marketplace while protecting the government from the religious factionalism that caused so much violence in England and Europe. Randall Balmer, a New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award nominee, is the John Phillips Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College. An Episcopal priest, he is the author of eighteen books, including Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter and Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right. He is a columnist for the Valley News, and his commentaries on religion in America appear in newspapers across the country.