The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has occasional events for journalists and scholars in Key West. Last month, they held one in which Wilfred McClay, professor of history at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, gave a talk about the relationship between secularism and religion in America. McClay basically argues there is philosophical secularism -- of which the recent "new atheists" like Richard Dawkins are a type -- and political secularism, which could allow religion a place in the public square. An interesting observation is that it's part and parcel of the American system to find our way about all this through conflict. Not particularly encouraging, in one sense, but seems to fit our current situation as well.