The civic catechisms and canticles of our day still celebrate Thomas Jefferson's experiment in religious freedom. To end a millennium of repressive religious establishments, we are taught, Jefferson sought religious freedom in the twin formulas of privatizing religion and secularizing politics. Religion must be "a concern purely between our God and our consciences," he wrote in 1802. Politics must be conducted with "a wall of separation between church and state." "Public Religion" is a threat to civil society and must thus be discouraged. "Political ministry" is a menace to political integrity and must thus be outlawed.