Ministry Today

QUOTE: "While we remain a nation decisively shaped by religious faith, our politics and our culture are, in the main, less influenced by movements and arguments of an explicitly Christian character than they were even five years ago. I think this is a good thing-good for our political culture, which, as the American Founders saw, is complex and charged enough without attempting to compel or coerce religious belief or observance. It is good for Christianity, too, in that many Christians are rediscovering the virtues of a separation of church and state that protects what Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island as a haven for religious dissenters, called ‘the garden of the church' from ‘the wilderness of the world.' As crucial as religion has been and is to the life of the nation, America's unifying force has never been a specific faith, but a commitment to freedom-not least freedom of conscience. ... Let's be clear: while the percentage of Christians may be shrinking, rumors of the death of Christianity are greatly exaggerated. Being less Christian does not necessarily mean that America is post-Christian." -Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, writing in the magazine's cover story this week declaring "The End of Christian America" [newsweek.com, 4/4/09]