The culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Author Waldman, cofounder of Beliefnet.com, argues that the United States was not founded as a "Christian nation," nor were the Founding Fathers uniformly secular or Deist. Rather, the Founders forged a new approach to religious liberty, a revolutionary formula that promoted faith--by leaving it alone. His narrative begins with early settlers' stunningly unsuccessful...