Volume 3: Issue 3
Democracy, Secularism and Religious Faith in America
Remarks at Ave Maria Law School (March 22, 2002):
As American citizens, we participate in a regime of democratic republican government. Most of us are also religious believers—people of faith. How does the religious faith of Americans shape our politics? That is an interesting and important question, but not the one on which I will focus in my remarks today. Rather, I invite you to reflect with me on a different question or set of questions: What is the impact of our particular form of civic order—as it has actually developed— on Americans’ free exercise of religion? How has it shaped the religious practice and faith of Americans?