Welcome to the Tikva podcast on great Jewish ideas and essays.

I'm your host, Eric Cohen.

Our subject today is Yvall Evans' important recent essay and first things called The Perils of Religious Liberty.

The flourishing of religious communities and the freedom of religious conscience have been central to the American

project since its founding, both in principle and in practice. Yet we are living in an age in which

many religious people feel imperiled, culturally imperiled by the assent of a new morality that

rejects many of the

Judeo-Christian norms that they cherish, and civically imperiled, by the changes in the

public square and in the law that threaten to weaken or even suffocate religious institutions.

Our conversation today will explore the American tradition of religious freedom, the new challenges

facing traditional religious communities, and how Jews in particular should think about these

great moral and political questions. It's my great pleasure to welcome my good friend

Yvall Levin to discuss the issues raised in his essay. Mr. Levin is the Hurtag Fellow at the Ethics

and Public Policy Center and the

editor and founder of National Affairs, America's most serious journal of public policy.

He is a wise commentator on politics and a serious thinker about the deeper currents and

larger aims of political life. Evol, thanks for joining me. Thank you very much.

So before we get to the changes and challenges of the current moment, I thought we could begin with first principles. I know you like to always

begin with first principles. What is the distinctive American tradition of religious liberty,

and how should we understand the two crucial dimensions of this tradition, namely the idea

of free exercise of religion on the one tradition, namely the idea of free exercise

of religion on the one hand, and the idea that government should never establish an official

...