LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY _butterkup_) I'm not a huge fan of his, but I was quite interested to hear Andrew Sullivan on NPR last night, discussing his new book (of course) The Conservative Soul.

Apparently, he is calling for a return to a separation of church and state, (along with a balanced budget and smaller government and individual liberty).  Sullivan defended religion, but was more in keeping with "you should be free to practice yours, which is no one's business"  which I don't think I've heard from a "conservative" in a good long while.  I was interested in his belief that the founders meant for the U.S. Constitution to protect the government from being overtaken my fundalmentalism, which is quite the opposite of what some "Christian leaders" would have one believe.  Sullivan  argued against fundamentalism as a force in public policy, basically saying that if you never doubt your ideals, you never need to defend them, thus can use them to justify doing horrible things (i.e. torture, terrorism).

Even more fascinating was the minister that was brought on as  a counterpoint, arguing that Christian fundalmentalism has strenghtened the Republican party.  He did not take kindly to Sullivan's charge that using religion to get out the vote was blasphemy.