Just finished delivering the BJC-sponsored Shurden Lectures at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, Martin Marty writes of how he was reminded that the strongest supporters of church-state separation can and should be people of faith.
[M]any who are nervous about “sectarian” messages and symbols in public settings are so for principled religious reasons. That is, despite some media portrayals and populist reactions, those who oppose public privileging of Christian symbols are not all atheists, secularists, humanists, and liberal non-believers. Some are dedicatedly Christian.
…
When Baptists were Baptist, they knew this, which is why they found the United States Constitution so protective and congenial. Many of their heirs continue to regard the Cross…as symbols of more than “religion in general.” Some court cases treat the monuments as “cross-shaped” secular symbols. It is also more and other than that.
See coverage of Marty's Shurden lectures here.
