This “conversation” is the national dialogue— it is the indispensable channel for the flow of our nation’s highest ideas and ideals; also known to us and to other nations as the “voice of the people.” Obama is pointing out to progressives that the removal of religious faith and language from our national perspective not only marginalizes our most positive guidance, but also our personal morality, both as individuals and as a nation; our apparent ability to justify and legislate torturing captured enemy combatants being only one egregious example.

Overcoming the political and religious barriers in America by an appeal to the renewal of our contract with one another as Americans, is the only medicine I know of that can transcend the assortment of ideological impasses and religious differences that beset our ability to find unity as a people, and move that conversation forward while it tries to discover still higher applications of the same values our Founding Fathers pursued.

My point is not that there is no longer a Christian monopoly in America, but as Obama points out, who’s Christianity will be guiding policy in the next four years: Obama’s or McCain’s? Obama has spoken eloquently of his regard for the values that all Americans have in common, in both the moral and material direction our nation goes; the more Americans are willing to set aside their prejudices and other differences and contribute to renewing the ideas and ideals of America, the sooner America will find solutions to her domestic and global problems, and in so doing, renew and rehabilitate ourselves as an even greater nation than the one we already know it to be.