![handle is hein.journals/ucladis57 and id is 1 raw text is:
GETTING THE FRAMERS WRONG: A RESPONSE TO
PROFESSOR GEOFFREY STONE
Samuel W. Calhoun
IN TRO DU C TIO N ........................................................................................................................ 1
I. PROFESSOR STONE'S THESIS ....................................................................................... 1
II. D EISM O VEREMPHASIZED ............................................................................................. 3
III. RELIGION WAS NOT SOLELY A PRIVATE MATTER TO THE FRAMERS ............................. 8
C O N C LU SIO N ......................................................................................................................... 12
INTRODUCTION
Professor Geoffrey Stone's Essay, The World of the Framers: A Christian
Nation?,1 seeks to state the truth about... what [the Framers] believed, and
about what they aspired to when they created this nation.' Doing so will
accomplish Professor Stone's main objective, helping us to understand what
the Constitution allows on a host of controversial public policy issues.3 Regret-
tably, Professor Stone's effort is unsuccessful. Although he clearly tried to be
fair in his historical account,' the Essay ultimately presents a misleading view
of the Framers' perspective on the proper relationship between religion and
the state.
I. PROFESSOR STONE'S THESIS
[Tihe point of Professor Stone's Essay is to use the Framers to offer
insight on what the Constitution allows on contested public policy issues.'
He begins his historical account with the claim that modern-day Christian
evangelicals, who assert that the United States was founded as a 'Christian
nation' embodying the Puritans' rigidly theocratic societal vision, are incor-
* Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law. The author appreciates
the help of Lyman Johnson, Andrew McThenia, Winnifred Sullivan, and several family members,
with special thanks to Stephen Calhoun.
1. Geoffrey R. Stone, The World of the Framers: A Christian Naon?, 56 UCLA L. REV. 1 (2008).
2. Id. at 26.
3. See id. at 2, 25-26.
4. See infra note 36 and accompanying text.
5. Stone, supra note 1, at 25-26.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ucladis57&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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