[markomalley]

IMHO, the money quote:

But it might be that the argument for religious freedom lies farther back than we have put it.Preserving religious liberty may not be a job for lawyers like me.It may be a job for lawyers like Thomas More.Our society won't care about religious freedom if it doesn't care about God.That's where reform is needed.We won't have – and we probably won't need – religious exemptions for nurses, doctors, teachers, social workers if no one is practicing their religion.The best way to protect religious freedom might be to remind people that they should love God.This is, after all, why we have a first amendment.And why in better times we have not needed to rely on the Constitution at all, because we could depend on our elected representatives to respect our liberty.

[markomalley]

With an appropriate hat tip to Fr Byers, a speech that is definitely worth your time.

[RedMonqey]

people who profess no religion or attend a worship service no more than once a year has gone up from 38% to 59% (21 points) in the last 40 years.6 During that same period the number of marriages among working class whites has gone from 84% to 48%.The number of births out of wedlock among the same group rose from 6% to 44%.Murray argues that the civic culture that defined the American way of life has unraveled over this period.