“Only the most unapologetic biblical fundamentalists, for instance, take every biblical injunction literally. If we all took all scripture at the same level of authority, then we would be more open to slavery, to the subjugation of women, to wider use of stoning. Jesus himself spoke out frequently against divorce in the strongest of terms.”

American writer, historian, and presidential biographer, born 1969

Jon Meacham is an American writer, historian, reviewer, and presidential biographer. He was born in 1969. He is known for his books on American political history and for winning the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. Meacham has held senior editorial roles at Random House and Newsweek, and he writes for The New York Times Book Review and Time. He is the Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral and holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Endowed Chair in American Presidency at Vanderbilt University. His work often returns to the presidency, leadership, and the American past.