Going back to College

Even though the semester is half over, I have been invited to sit in on a class at a local college: Religion in America from the Civil War to the Present.  I’ve been to two so far and am having a great time.  Who were the Know-Nothings and how did they relate to nativism, the rise of the Republican Party and opposition to Catholicism in the mid 19^th century?  How did religion affect the way immigrant groups entered into American culture?  What forces drove the Second Great Awakening and the rise of Fundamentalism?  If the twenty or so students in this class are representative of our future, then we are in good hands.  They are bright, inquisitive, eager to look into questions like these and willing to reflect on how their own upbringing has influenced what they think.