America needs religion.
Let it be preached, let it be taught, let it be practiced.
But while each of us goes our own way to the church of our choice,
free to worship as we will, and to declare our faith and to persuade others,
let all of us together remember that democracy unites us in spiritual communion,
and that we are citizens of one country just as we are children of one God.
Let us not disdain our heritage.
There is a faith within democracy drawn from the best of all religions.
It is a faith in the victory of truth in free and open encounters,
and in the triumph of liberty over servitude, and of universal over provincial,
and of unity over exclusiveness, and love over fear.
Whatever may separate us in conviction, ritual, or devotion, let this unite us.
Without it we are lost—and so is the hope of this world.