 The reason why I ask the question, is religion inherently conservative, progressive or revolutionary, is because I think especially among our European friends, there is this tendency to view American religion as peculiarly conservative. And that is in large part because of the publicity that the Christian right began achieving, starting in the late 1970s with people like Pat Roberts and Jerry Falwell on the important role, and it was an important role, that religious conservatives played in electing Ronald Reagan in 1980. And so I think it's very important to look back at the trajectory of religion, and again, I emphasize evangelical religion only because it's associated so much with conservatism, with political conservatism now, to say that the history is quite different than that. If you look at our anti-slavery movement, the great stain on American life was racism and slavery, and it's a struggle we have had from the very beginning of our country, it's something with which we still struggle. I argue that in some ways, we have at least the advantage over other nations that we've been at this problem longer than most aside. It's because we committed this original sin, and I think we struggle with it more than most societies, but it is our original sin. And when you go back and look at who mobilized people against slavery, who are the first people to come along in our politics and say this is morally wrong? Not that we should compromise with it, not that maybe we should extinguish it gradually, but we must repeal this. The anti-slavery movement came in significant part out of the evangelical movement in America, and out of the conversion of evangelicals, the rise of evangelicals, and a lot of individual conversions in the 1820s and 1830s. The evangelical movement then became linked, and this is particularly the evangelical movement in the North. And I think in understanding American religion to always important to understand the split between the North and South that created, caused a civil war in our country. The same evangelicals were in favor of ending imprisonment for debt. They were in favor of creating asylums for the mentally ill instead of mistreating the mentally ill. They were in favor of establishing a rigorous public school system. So to a very large degree, the evangelicals were the progressives in American politics. Jump forward to what we call our progressive era, presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, whom Rob referenced. The, a lot of the people who became partisans in the progressive movement were people who went into America's slums in the 1880s and 1890s, people like Jane Adams, for religious reasons. And they were trying to help people one on one on one. And they became progressive because they, over time, while they honored the one-on-one work they were doing, they also realized that only structural change in the society and the economy would actually lift folks up. Jump further still to our civil rights movement. If you look at all of the surveys, the following is a defensible statement that African-Americans are the most religious people in America. There are other people who are religious, but if you take, there are many, many non-African-Americans who are very religious, but the African-American community is very religious. If you think about the preaching of Martin Luther King, the reason why I think he was a successful leader beyond a genius for tactics in the way in which non-violence played so brilliantly into a media age to see innocent demonstrators who are being nonviolent, beaten by white policemen, energized the country. But I think at a theoretical level, the reason he converted people, if I may use that word, was his fluency with the two key religious documents in the United States, one being the Bible, and the other being our Declaration of Independence. The other thing I want to close with is something that I've been talking about a lot in relation to my book. I really believe that we Americans are understating to ourselves the importance of our own communitarian tradition, the side of ourselves that is not radically individualistic, that is not Clint Eastwood. I think that Americans actually are very confusing to ourselves as well as to you. I mean, we produce movies like It's a Wonderful Life, which some of you may have seen, the great Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie that's all about community, and we produce Dirty Harry, we produce writers like John Steinbeck, which is all about social justice and community, and we produce writers like Jack Kerouac, which is all about individualism and individual adventure, and so we are confusing people. But I think that right now our tendency is to focus far more on individualism and losing our gift for community. So what I want to close on is to link two very unlikely characters for you. I want to link Bruce Springsteen with John Winthrop, one of the Puritan founders of America. Now you may ask, what do Bruce Springsteen and John Winthrop have, could possibly have in common? How many people here are actually fans of Springsteen? I've always wondered if it's a peculiarly American taste. No, well that's very good, that's a pretty good percentage. How many people know who Bruce Springsteen is? Let's try that, okay. The, so who's my Puritan? My Puritan is a man called John Winthrop, who many of you remember, those of you who are older remember, Ronald Reagan always referring to the United States as a shining city on a hill. That came from a sermon by John Winthrop, one of the founders, early governor of Massachusetts, a sermon he gave in 1630 called a Model of Christian Charity. And I would just want to share one line from that sermon. He said, we must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our community as members of the same body. Sounds something straight out of St. Paul, actually. We are all part of one another. Now that's the Puritan. What does Springsteen have to do with this? For those of you who are true fans, that handful of you, you will know that one of his most, the new popular hit that he has put out as part of his new album. You will now hear it on the Obama campaign. He has started playing this at his rallies. And the refrain of the song is wherever this flag is flown, he's talking about the American flag, wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own. And I do believe there is a trajectory from John Winthrop to Bruce Springsteen. And I do believe that this communitarian spirit is one of the very best things about us that we ought to talk about it more, but even more, we ought to practice it more. And I want to close where I started to thank the Nexus Institute. What I really appreciate about what Rob does and what I appreciate that all of you would come out and have a conversation like this is what I said at the beginning, that if we care about preserving societies that value freedom, equality, community, we're not gonna preserve those societies if we don't think about the meaning of those things, if we don't think about where they came from, if we don't root them in something more than our own personal preferences. Because these aren't personal preferences alone, these are fundamental principles that we want a whole society to live by. And I want to salute you all for putting up with me for all this time and for caring enough or having teachers who care enough that you are willing to engage in this kind of discussion. And it's a dangerous invitation, but if any of you are ever in the United States, please give me a call. Thank you very, very much. Thank you.