PBS: God in America

Is America the story of religious liberty or the story of religious persecution? If you've watched the last two installments of the sweeping PBS trilogy, "God in America" you'd know there's much more to that story than you've realized before. From the arrival of the religiously persecuted Puritans to the later persecution of the Baptists by the aristocrats of the Episcopalian church (and don't forget Thomas Jefferson's creation of his own bible) this is not the America we've read about in history class.

Following Jefferson's win for the religious freedom of Baptists came a new persecution of Catholic immigrants which lead them to the creation of their own separate school systems to survive. Afterwards the documentary introduces us to how God (and death) changed Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War; and how Reform Judaism came to dominate American Jewry. The story continues when Evangelical Protestants rebel against the new light of science and put liberal theologians through highly publicized heresy trials: Presbyterians, Episcopalians, etc. And as still more immigrants arrived creating social upheaval, the newly dominant religious order of Fundamentalism faces a bitter defeat in the court of public opinion over Darwinism but instead of giving up, they create a new American subculture which will wait decades to rise again.

God in America explains what gave rise to the current divide of liberals vs. conservatives, modernists vs. fundamentalists with powerful storytelling and explosive insights. Join an online chat with the filmmakers right now, and don't miss the final part of the trilogy tonight as we continue to explore the question of whether America is the story of religious liberty or persecution. (Also watch the series online at www.pbs.org)