ABSTRACT
No doubt one should avoid sweeping generalizations about the role of reli-gion in public life. Nevertheless, we risk beginning with one. Historically, the “standard view” in the United States has been that religion has a posi-tive effect on morality and citizenship, but that sectarianism is a vice. This theme has many variations. Some understood it to mean that a natural religion might be developed. Others understood it to recommend a lowest-common-denominator Protestantism. Such views will themselves seem sec-tarian to many (Glenn 1988). We defend a version of the standard view.
