Seeking Common Ground: A Secular Statement

It is clear that there is a crisis today in the interpretation of the Establishment Clause. Not only do we not know what the Clause means, we do not even have clear opposing constitutional visions. At the same time, we have today a related crisis in American political life between religious believers and nonbelievers over the proper place of religion in politics. Finally, we have today in the West, a crisis of social morals as older religious certainties fade and secularism drifts dangerously close to nihilism.

In my view, all of these issues are related. The answer to all three is to find a bridge between secularism and our religious traditions that requires neither submission to religious myths nor banishment of religious believers from public life. We need to seek common ground.