This is thinking in public, a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about

frontline theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them.

I'm Albert Mower, your host and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

in Louisville, Kentucky.

John Anazu is Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion

and Professor Political Science at Washington

University in St. Louis.

He's a well-known scholar in the area of First Amendment freedom.

His specialization is dealing with the rights of speech, assembly, and religion.

He also has written and lectured broadly on issues that include political and legal theory

and many of the issues currently in the headlines of America's public conversation.

In addition to his service at Washington University, he's also Senior Fellow at the

Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia.

He's widely sought in the major media and has been cited on CNN.

He's also appeared in academic journals such as the Hedgehog Review.

And of course he has published his own books including his first book Liberty's Refuge

The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly which was published in 2012 by Yale University Press.

His most recent book and the topic of our conversation today is confident

pluralism surviving and thriving through deep difference published just

this year by the University of Chicago Press. Professor John Anasu

welcome to thinking in public.

Speaking right into some of the hottest controversies of the day, Professor John Anazu says, and I quote,

...