Description
In this deeply revealing and engaging autobiography, Herb Silverman tells his iconoclastic life story. He takes the reader from his childhood as an Orthodox Jew in Philadelphia, where he stopped fasting on Yom Kippur to test God’s existence, to his adult life in the heart of the Bible Belt, where he became a legendary figure within America’s secular activist community and remains one of its most beloved leaders. Never one to shy from controversy, Silverman relates many of his high-profile battles with the Religious Right, including his decision to run for governor of South Carolina to challenge the state’s constitutional provision that prohibited atheists from holding public office. Candidate Without a Prayer offers an intimate portrait of a central player in today’s increasingly heated culture wars.
Read More
In the early 1990s, author Herb Silverman was an atheist and math professor at the College of Charleston when he ran for governor of South Carolina, a state that at the time required religious belief to hold public office. Silverman's autobiography, written with humor and heart, centers on his eight-year battle to challenge the state's constitutional provision against atheists holding office, but also reveals the personal side of his life, from his early years growing up in an Orthodox Jewish household in the 1940s, through his education, his move to the South, his local and national activism, and his travels to the holy lands of various world religions. The book includes b&w personal photos. Silverman, founder of the Secular Coalition for America, is a regular contributor to the Washington Post and the Huffington Post. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Read Less