Our country was founded on secular ideals. The rise of the fundamentalists (American Taliban?) within our political system is rapidly eroding the principles that have made our nation's political and justice system stand out as unique in the world. These days, being known as "too secular" means you are unelectable. Thomas Jefferson would be unelectable if he were alive today.

beliefnet: Excerpt from 'Freethinkers' by Susan Jacoby "It is difficult, in an era in which most Americans acquire their information from packaged sound bites that require almost no effort from audiences, to convey the excitement of a time when people were willing to expend a good deal of energy looking at evidence, and listening to opinions, that challenged the received wisdom of previous ages."

Progressive News - Our Secular Nation by Susan Jacoby: "In fact�and it is a little-known fact today�devout evangelical Christians were among the strongest supporters of the separation between church and state that took shape in the formative years of the republic."

Jefferson's Wall of Separation Letter - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state"

NOW with Bill Moyers. Politics & Economy. God and Government. Separating Church and State | PBS