No Government Can Be Maintained Without The

America Has Long Raised Political And Cultural Cognitive Dissonance To An Art Form. We Are Capable Of Living With Enormous Inequality And Injustice While Convincing Ourselves That We Are In Fact Moving Toward What Churchill Called The "broad, Sun-lit Uplands."

It's Possible That The 2012 General-election Race Will Be The Least Overtly Religious One Since 1972, The Last Campaign Before Roe V. Wade And The Rise Of Jimmy Carter Brought Evangelicalism Into The Political Mainstream. That's Because Faith Remains A Complicated Issue For Obama, Who Is Still Wrongly Thought To Be A Muslim In Some Quarters.

The American System Of Political Spending Is So Unregulated That It Might Make Adam Smith Rethink Free Markets.

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.

If Heaven Is Understood More As God's Space On Earth Than As An Ethereal Region Apart From The Essential Reality We Know, Then What Happens On Earth Matters Even More Than We Think, For The Christian Life Becomes A Continuation Of The Unfolding Work Of Jesus, Who Will One Day Return To Set The World To Rights.