What's God Got to Do with America?

For decades in the 20th century, America swung toward a more secular view of life and public life. In the last decade and more, conservative religious voices have risen loudly in American politics.

We've all learned from the swings. But with war, political corruption, and cultural division so prominent, no one seems happy yet with the national balance.

This hour On Point: a new conversation with Dr. Richard Land and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend on the new place of religion in American public life.

Quotes from the Show:

"The failing I see is that we've had this great, rich religious tradition in our American history that asked us to care for justice and for the common good and it has been, I think, misused by many churches where they've only focused on very few issues: abortion, same-sex marriage and stem cell research. And I think that that's a failing because I think that the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition was a much larger God and God has now been shrunk in these political dialogues." Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

"I don't think we're as divided as we're led to believe sometimes by some of the cable outlets who try to get the people with the narrowest minds and the loudest voices from both sides on the air and let them yell at each other for 20 minutes and they think that's balanced journalism. And I think the problem is that leads Americans to think that we're more divided than we actually are." Dr. Richard Land

"As a Baptist, I certainly don't want government-sponsorship of religion." Richard Land

"The more the government controls churches, the more disgusted people in the pews get." Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

Guests:

Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He is also author of "The Divided States of America? What Liberals and Conservatives Are Missing in the God-and-Country Shouting Match!"

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, eldest daugher of RFK, former Lt. Governor of Maryland, author of "Failing America's Faithful."