Why can't we practice religion in a way that doesn't divide community and country? The free exercise of religion is central to the First Amendment, but the increasing activism of religious conservatives has raised new concerns about separation of church and state. It also has led to a fractious debate on the national stage between left- and right-wing activists holding the most extreme views about politics and public policy.

Hallowed Ground: Rediscovering Our Spiritual Roots argues that the solution lies in making better use of an emerging "moral middle," a flourishing group of Americans who do share the concern of religious conservatives about a crisis of values, but who are put off by what they perceive as intolerance and prejudice. Mr. Stephen Burgard, a journalist with an interest in the cultural impact of religious values, goes beyond the predictable collision of ideologies.

He sets the debate in the context of mainstream America's search for a new and more meaningful way of expressing religious values in a multiethnic society.

Hallowed Ground maintains that the ongoing partisan argument is being rendered obsolete by these developments and others, such as the changing debate over values. Although shaped mainly by Christianity and Judaism, the values debate may soon be influenced by the presence of "new" religions imported by waves of recent immigration.

As more Americans practice Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, for example, the context for talk about "family values" considerably broadens and, in some instances, offers fresh insight and resources for all citizens in America's continuing experiment with democracy. This refreshingly unbiased book will engage all readers interested in religion as a force to unite instead of to divide.