Bill Moyers is an author, lecturer, and scholar whose career has included public service, academia, and public television. He is an articulate believer in the benefits to religion, government, and society by having government and religion function separately. Moyers recently received the lifetime achievement award from the American Baptist Churches USA Biennial Convention. Though he was unable to attend the award ceremony, he wrote an expression of gratitude containing his thoughts on current trends in church-state separation. The Baptist Joint Committee’s publication, Report from the Capital, a premiere publication providing perceptive analyses of current governmental events impacting religion, published Moyers’ remarks. We are grateful to the Baptist Joint Committee for allowing us to reprint them here.

Vern L. Alger, Lake Union Conference religious liberty director