During a recent radio interview, Attorney General William Barr asserted that a band of “militant secularists” is trying to drive religion out of American public life.
Appearing on Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s SiriusXM radio show on Jan. 29, Barr insisted that America’s founders viewed religion as necessary for a free people and added, “The reason they felt they could grant so much freedom in the Constitution and only provide for limited government was because they felt that religion was there and the people were religious people who could largely govern themselves.”
Barr went on to say, “Now, we’re not talking about mixing of church and state. We believe in the separation of church and state, but what permits a limited government and minimal command and control of the population and allow people to have freedom of choice in their lives and trust in the people is the fact that they are a people that are capable of disciplining themselves according to moral values. I feel today religion is being driven out of the marketplace of ideas, and there’s an organized, militant secular effort to drive religion out of our lives.”
He added, “To me, the problem today is not that religious people are trying to impose their views on non-religious people. It’s the opposite. It’s that militant secularists are trying to impose their values on religious people, and they’re not accommodating the freedom of religion of people of faith.”
