Ms. Sullivan also makes a significant mistake when she says that “Understanding Americans to be fundamentally religious is now deeply embedded in government and in our public culture,” and that this is inherently contrary to secularism. Since secularism does not entail a denial of the fact that some people are religious, her claim is clearly false.

Finally, her distinction between a “faith-based” nation and a secular one trades on a popular elision of the inherent and intractable differences among competing theologies. (The faith which illuminates the the conservative Muslim’s view of the nation will provide a markedly different picture from that provided by the liberal Baptist’s.) This elision of course is a consequence of the prevailing, secularist assumption that it is wrong, at the level of government, to privilege the members of one religious group over those of others based solely upon religious considerations. If Ms. Sullivan wishes to demonstrate that America and its citizens are not secular in this sense, further evidence is required.