Americans DID, in fact, become Americans because they sought religious liberty, but, the book alleges, the source of that religious liberty has been misidentified.
The book makes the case — and I’ll need to finish reading it before I can testify how well — that it is an absurdity to assert that true religious liberty derives from Enlightenment philosophy. The Enlightenment, at best, spawned religious tolerance, which is not the same thing.
No, the first stones in the foundations upon which our religious liberty — and, by extension, our Bill of Rights — have been established, were laid by men who, too often, found themselves bound to a stake amid the flames of martyrdom. Still, their testimony was that they were laying their stones aside that ONE GREAT CORNERSTONE, which had been laid by no less than God Himself.
As I note, further reading will discover the strength of these claims, but my knowledge of their author gives me great cause to prejudge that they are sound.
And with that, I must away; the customer has a crisis for me to manage.
I’ll be waiting to hear your take on it when you are done reading it.