#pa

It is true that traditional Christianity is losing some of its appeal among Americans, but that is a religious, not political, matter. It is worth remembering that the Jeffersonian 'wall of separation' between church and state has always been intended to protect the church from the state as much as the state from the church. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#among #appeal #been #between #christianity

It's possible that the 2012 general-election race will be the least overtly religious one since 1972, the last campaign before Roe v. Wade and the rise of Jimmy Carter brought evangelicalism into the political mainstream. That's because faith remains a complicated issue for Obama, who is still wrongly thought to be a Muslim in some quarters. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#before #brought #campaign #carter #complicated

Part of what I loved - and love - about being around older people is the tangible sense of history they embody. I'm interested in military history, for instance, because both my grandfathers fought in World War II. I'm interested in writing because one of those grandfathers wrote books. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#around #because #being #books #both

The bringing-about of order is the first and fundamental task of government. We accept limits on our rights for the sake of a larger social compact all the time. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#compact #first #fundamental #government #larger

The past always seems somehow more golden, more serious, than the present. We tend to forget the partisanship of yesteryear, preferring to re-imagine our history as a sure and steady march toward greatness. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#forget #golden #greatness #history #march

The power of the American system of republicanism lies in its capacity to allow religious belief to be a competing, not a controlling, factor in American life. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#american #american life #belief #capacity #competing

With the perspective afforded by the passage of time, where does 9/11 rank as a turning point in our national history? For the victims and their families, innocents going about their lives, suddenly and brutally murdered, no other day can ever matter as much. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#afforded #brutally #day #does #ever

As long as any adult thinks that he, like the parents and teachers of old, can become introspective, invoking his own youth to understand the youth before him, he is lost. ↗

— Margaret Mead

#adult #any #become #before #him

Life in the twentieth century is like a parachute jump: you have to get it right the first time. ↗

— Margaret Mead

#first #first time #get #jump #life

The pains of childbirth were altogether different from the enveloping effects of other kinds of pain. These were pains one could follow with one's mind. ↗

— Margaret Mead

#childbirth #could #different #effects #enveloping