“Persons” and “churches” can be described as “Christian”; nations cannot. Those of us who are Christian citizens of America would do well to think of our nation as a pluralistic one, a polity in which people of all religions and of no religion at all have equal rights and can live as they see fit.

For that to happen, of course, liberal democracy (1) may not place restraints on the use of religious reason in public and (2) must understand that the neutrality of the state toward all overarching interpretations of life should be impartiality rather than separation. If it does not satisfy these two conditions, liberal democracy will be illiberal toward religious folk, which is to say toward the majority of its citizens.

America is not and should not be a Christian nation. As a matter of historical record, it is true, however, that liberal democracy, which made the notion of pluralistic America possible, grew out of Christian soil and was built on some fundamental Christian convictions.

Could a Muslim, for instance, embrace liberal democracy? It is for Muslims to answer this question. I hope that they too would feel an affinity with a truly pluralistic liberal democracy in which they can authentically speak in their own voice. Indeed, I hope that they will have Muslim reasons for adopting it.