I chose to be one of the signers of the Williamsburg Charter because I hope that interest in the Charter will reinvigorate our public and private life in the United States. I hope that the Charter and the discussion it has provoked will set an example for nations grappling with the best way to balance religion and politics.

The First Amendment holds a special place in the history of United States and indeed in the history of the world. I love America because of what was created by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and George Mason and all of those clever, philosophical, tough-minded, slightly mischievous men.

They understood that America is a great experiment. They came out of a world in which changing governments meant changing one master for another — the kinds of governments that free, responsible individuals do not get very excited about. But what if, they thought, the very nature of government could change for the better. What if people could stop being subjects to masters and begin to govern themselves as neither servants nor masters. To do so, people would have to become better than they are. And so the founders of America challenged posterity with goals and standards that no society on earth had ever achieved or ever really dared to try.