Joy to the World tells the stories behind some of the most wonderful and best-loved songs of the season that express the spiritual sentiments of Christmas. While many other Christmas songs celebrate home and family, romance, and winter weather, the songs whose stories are told here express the underlying reality of the Christmas season between Advent and Epiphany -- the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

The songs in Joy to the World are among the most enduring and permanent of the season's musical traditions. They have stood the test of time and express the many moods and emotions that evoke the spiritual significance of Christmas. Reflecting many eras and different cultures, Joy to the World reveals their origins, the reasons why they were written, and why they are so beloved. The book is organized into six sections of Christmas songs and carols from the Americas, England and Ireland, France and Spain, Germany and Austria, and Greece and Rome, and classical Christmas music.

The candidacy of John F. Kennedy provoked widespread discussion of issues relating to church and state and to the role of Catholics in American politics. This text is the inside story of that dramatic campaign and is the first scholarly examination based on actual voting returns. It includes a detailed analysis of the vote in every county, revealing that religion affected the outcome of the election far more than previously thought. Kennedy lost more votes than he gained due to his religious affiliation, but by crafting a strong coalition, he prevailed in one of the closest races in presidential history.

The United States has enjoyed a long and venerable tradition of separation of church and state. But how is this relationship handled in Canada with which we have considerable political, economic, and social ties? This book describes the main contours of how religion and government interact in Canada. While written from the perspective of an American separationist, it reflects the unique traditions that have developed a somewhat different style of church-state relationships in our neighbour to the north. Written to inform U.S. readers, it includes much data from a variety of sources that may not be widely known to many Canadians.Religion's impact on education, law, and politics is the primary focus of the study. Wherever possible, comparisons between the United States and Canadian experiences are discussed so readers can observe how two great democracies have approached the interaction between church and state. This overview will further understanding and increase knowledge on both sides of the border.

In this age of "political correctness," Christmas has become our most controversial holiday. Each year brings new court battles over nativity scenes on public property and heated school board meetings in the public schools.
Author Albert J. Menendez traces this dispute as far back as the fourth century, when Catholic orthodoxy turned Christmas into a major propaganda tool as well as a religious observance. Over the centuries there has been a surprising amount of disagreement among the various Christian sects about the nature of the Christian observance and whether Christmas should be celebrated as a holiday at all. The English Puritans and the Scottish Presbyterians, for example, were adamantly opposed to Christmas celebrations.
In our own day, the controversy has engendered a complex legal tangle stretching from local councils to the United States Supreme Court. Menendez reviews the specific arguments and decisions in the judicial debate over religious symbols in the public square, and he explores the broader implications of the controversy for church-state relations. The December Wars provides a fascinating historical and legal perspective on our most popular holiday.

This enjoyable book illuminates the long-held traditions and rare occurances that have shaped Christmas at the White House over the course of its history. Albert Menendez poured through diaries, memoirs, letters, newspapers, and more to compile the stories chronicled here, which include a Christmas wedding and honeymoon for Woodrow Wilson, the first lighting of the National Christmas Tree by Calvin Coolidge, a surprise dinner for poor children hosted by Abraham Lincoln's son, and so much more.

This outstanding collection of memorable quotations on religious freedom - the most comprehensive ever assembled - covers many centuries of thought and a wide array of sources. On every page, the reader will discover a wealth of thoughtful, wise, and impassioned statements by all manner of men and women on a subject that has moved the consciences of generations from the distant past to the present. Included are early church fathers, Enlightenment philosophers, popes, anticlerical European statesmen, journalists, famous writers, judges, twenty-six presidents of the United States, and many others. A special feature of this compilation is the inclusion of quotes from major judicial decisions, from 1872 to the present, that bear on religious liberty. Above all, these quotations show that an enormously wide spectrum of men and women of diverse religious, social, and political views have championed the principle of religious freedom. Covering an extraordinary array of topics - from abortion rights, charitable choice, and creationism to pluralism, religious persecution, and school prayer - teachers, scholars, clergy, legislators, writers, public speakers, and anyone with an interest in these and other vital issues will benefit from the powerful words in this volume.

Visions of Reality: what Fundamentalist Schools Teach is an important book for every citizen: every taxpayer, because powerful sectarian special interests and their political allies want all taxpayers to support these schools. Although a majority of Americans have repeatedly shown in referendum elections and opinion polls that they oppose tax support for nonpublic schools, fundamentalist leaders and their political lobbies are putting increasing pressure on Congress and state legislatures to compel taxpayers to support sectarian private schools through "vouchers" or "tuition tax credits", under the deceptive banner of "school choice". Albert J. Menendez has carefully examined the most widely used history, English, and science textbooks in fundamentalist private schools. He documents the fact that these schools promote prejudice against people of other faiths, distort history, derogate our literary heritage, cast science in a bad light, and otherwise indoctrinate children with "visions of reality" that are incompatible with public tax support. This timely and important study is the first of its kind and brings to public attention information available from no other source.

In 1787, the new United States of America formulated a Constitution, which for more than two hundred years has remained the greatest single advance in the long evolution of democracy and freedom. The authors of the Constitution, fearing the religious intolerance and persecution that was typical of many European governments, deliberately avoided a church-state union and limited the federal government to purely secular matters. The First Amendment explicitly stated, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ..". In the debate over the separation between church and state, attention is often focussed solely on the national Constitution. The fact is sometimes overlooked that the state constitutions, some of which were written before the federal Constitution, include explicit protections of religious liberty and church-state separation, some even more comprehensive and specific in their guarantees and prohibitions than the U.S. Constitution. All of the state constitutions deal with religious freedom and all support the church-state separation principle. Forty-six states explicitly protect freedom of worship or conscience, while thirty-five states prohibit establishment of any state religion. Interestingly, five states still have provisions requiring that office holders believe in a Supreme Being, despite the fact that the Supreme Court declared these requirements to be unconstitutional in 1961. This comprehensive volume brings together all of the religious-liberty and church-state provisions of the fifty state constitutions. The only work of its kind, Religious Liberty and State Constitutions will serve as a useful referencework for people in the fields of education, law, and religion.

This work includes a state-by-state survey of direct or indirect aid for parochial and other non-public schools, and discusses the controversy in American education on church and state.