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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. Worse yet, about half of us believe that the “founding ideal” that should be operative is to protect us from the beliefs of other half of us — with many people of faith feeling their faith is not welcome in the public square, and non-Christians fearing a rising tide of openly-embraced Christian nationalism. Whatever could go wrong?

God Squad will be doing what they do best — saying what needs said, while throwing a little empathy and respect out into the universe for the people who just don’t see it their way. With a little more of their unique version of mutual respect spreading from sea to shining sea, in fact, might we make it to 300?