As we barrel toward America's 250th, one could argue that if we crack up before we get there (some bad days we'd take even odds), it'll have something to do with the complexity of being in charge of executing one of the founders' biggest ideas — that the church and the state were to be separate in this new nation of theirs. (It had been so much "easier" when the king told all us peasants what religion we were.)

Our framers, for the first time in history, asserted that a citizenry had "natural rights" as human beings, given to them only by God, to follow (and be responsible for) our individual consciences — including the right to not believe at all. These rights could then not be taken by the government. Those dudes in tights, both Christian and Deist, had birthed a country where all sorts of religious belief would thrive.

Turns out high principles about freedom for everyone all at the same time wouldn't be a piece of cake and after 250-ish years of disagreement, we're still haggling over those darn specifics — partly because we're masters of not seeing the log in our own eyes. God Squad goes right to the real conversation on this age-old prickly topic.

Learn more about the program and meet the God Squad here.

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Funding for this podcast was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This program is part of a larger project "Healing Starts Here" funded by New Pluralists. Learn more about our project, and other inspiring grantees here.