Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson has spent a lot of his post-Bush columnist career pushing a not very subtle agenda to rehabilitate his old boss. But he's also admirably faced down some of the nuttier elements in his party, and today's column is a heartening example of the latter:
One intriguing finding of the recent American Values Survey is that 55 percent of Tea Party supporters believe that "America has always been and is currently a Christian nation." The figure among Christian conservatives is 49 percent. According to the survey, the Tea Party movement is less religious than the traditional Christian right. Yet a higher percentage of Tea Party supporters believe in a Christian America. ...
This view is comforting to some -- as comforting as a visit to Colonial Williamsburg. It is consistent with populist movements before it. But it is flawed nonetheless. America is not a Christian country and has never been, for historical, theological and philosophic reasons.