This excerpt is quite effective in illustrating the content of the interview. I caution you to be careful before reading it if you are very sensitive about criticism.

However, those among us who are deeply religious, and who choose to inject their religious faith into the political debate, will simply have to come to terms with the fact that their religious institutions, their religious beliefs, their personal conduct and their persona are now part of the political debate in the USA.

Religion has become politicized in the USA, so it seems to me. Both the left and the right politicize religion. As Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are popular spokesmen, so are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Unfortunately for the left-leaners, Robertson and Falwell must be taken seriously, but comparatively few people take Sharpton and Jackson seriously (unless they are leading a protest march in front of a factory or something).

BuzzFlash > Interviews > Susan Jacoby
A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

…liberals tend to be looking for common ground, but I don’t believe the right wing in this country wants common ground. To liberals and people who believe in secular government – I say forget about the fundamentalists. Appeal to the 60 or 70 percent of the American people who aren’t fundamentalists – who may have lots of religious beliefs, but who also believe in secular government. Don’t waste time trying to persuade people who believe that the earth was created in seven days. You’re not going to persuade those people of anything.

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Susan Jacoby, a fervent believer in the separation of church and state, recently spoke with BuzzFlash about America’s historical roots in secularism, or freedom of religion. Her latest book, Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism (a BuzzFlash premium), is an exploration of the rich history of our secular country, a nation conceived in the “Age of Reason,” in response to European religious oppression. As she argues so persuasively, our American revolution, our heroic and enlightened founders, and our unique Constitution left behind the old European model of governments founded on a fixed religious hierarchy and belief in the divine rights of monarchs. America was founded to allow religious thought and practice, not to endorse a single form of it. Trouble is, some of our most powerful leaders today would have us march right back to that pre-revolutionary, “divinely inspired” model of governing.