attack for a way to president bush to fund our money to his friend to the religious rights. when obama came into office, one of his very first askwas to broaden the number of recipients, as well as establish an expensive advisory council to ensure that there is no favoritism at play. income hindus, income other groups to survive on this counsel. a few months after he was inaugurated, obamasought to reconcile relations with a few middle eastern countries, especially turkey. at a joint press conference, president obama reflected on some of the similarities between the two nations. specifically citing a tradition of religious pluralism. you have heard this before from

professor blum __ we have a very large christian population. we do not consider ourselves at christian nation, a muslim nation, or a jewish nation. we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values. closer to home, and this is my concluding point, obama endorsed religion pluralism in 2010, wwhen he proposed to build a mosque to blacks from the new world trade center. this is america, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. so, diverse or not, american

pluralism has, in fact, triumph in the age of obama. so, despite all the clamoring from the religious right, of movement to bring america back to a stable time when christians were the sole arbiter of american life, american religious pluralism is now the de facto mode of american self_awareness. that come in a small part, explains the animosity and angercoming from conservative christians today. thank you very much. [applause] >> i think we have time for a few questions. yes? great. >> one of the themes that struck me going through almost

all the paper we heard this morning is the myth between the rhetoric and reality __ but i would like to address my question to professor sanchez, in particular. you mentioned diane west as someone who wrote about conspiracy theories. and she referred to the office of refugee settlement. and all this rhetoric about the rule of law, when we are dealing with the mass migration of town migrants recently, no one seems to recognize that there is a lot about refugees. so, people talk all about laws that we should be protecting the border more __ that is, you know, the rule of law __ but they seem to ignore the fact that refugee policy, which would apply to at least some of these child migrants, is also

part of the rule of law. so i'm wonderingiif __ how does this cognitive difference keep americans acting in this way? how is it that we continue to believe that this is a very religiously diverse country, when in fact, it is not. i mean, are we continually deluding ourselves when the facts seems to show otherwise? >> okay. the debate was with the unaccompanied minors is if they should be called refugees all. part of the process of dehumanizing and destabilizing this narrative is to suggest that they are, essentially, covers for gang members, drug runners, and, in particular with children, that they are carriers of disease. and that is not a new trope. that has been used several

times before __ to enforce mass fumigation of mexican migrants over the border. to fumigate mexican workers who are going back and forth to work mostly in the railroads and other jobs along the border. so you don't talk about worker right, you don't talk about health laws. it was a public health issue. so if you spin that to say it is a matter of public health, then you essentially, in the 1920's, 11930's, had a right to fumigate to mexican workers. well you never fumigated white workers going back and forth, doing their missionary work. giving them refugee status creates a whole another area of __ the benefit greatly from

maintaining the facts __ there facts, essentially __ tthat these are people of questionable needs. and that __ what she said is very clear __ that these are un assimilatable. why does it still work? i don't know. i don't live in texas. i don't for your. i live in california. so we do things differently there. i don't know. i do know. but why does it work? it works because it feeds into a centuries old trope of latin american people as being un_american. and being viewed as existential threats to an imagined america that never existed.

as my colleague you will mention about pluralism, i will let him do with that, bbut it is maintaining a protective order. and i think that is why it works for successfully. for centuries. >> thank you. >> my questions also in refugee resettlement. i was interested in what you said about thesentiment in the current political climate. and i have noticed that here, too. although most people are welcoming, there are often protesters from various camps that claimed communal, the refugees who are coming are

changing the face of the united states. but another facet that i was interested iin what your observations might be would be that __ ssince most of the resettlement agencies are faith_based and represented here, too __ sometimes do interweave social services with subtlea not_so_subtle notions towards accepting christianity, along with the refugee resettlement process. so i'm just interested in any observations you might have on refugee resettlement and religion these days. >> well, though i don't recommend it, as purely a form of information, you should all look at refugee resettlement.

i certainly __ even if i accepted kickbacks from them. i would not take it __ but it is an intriguing site. they don't like anybody. so, essentially, catholics, united methodist, jewish groups __ all are dupes in this grand conspiracy to undermine the fabric of this country. and what the fabric of the country is for this particular group of people is the demographic fabric. that this refugee resettlement wave is essentially a moneymaking scheme from resettlement officers, who, are apparently making money on the side. the point is not really to provide evidence. it is simply telling to all these other sites of where the buses are coming, who's coming, what laws are being passed underneath people's noses to ensure that we get massive __

the latest ones seem that unaccompanied minors are not an issue anymore. the latest issues are refugees or immigrants from africa, and the attempts to scare up the ebola scare. that is, too, part of the plot. so it is unusual logic to say the least. but if you're interested in how your workas per trade amongst __ and i don't even call them the extreme right, i think it is just the right __ to take a look at it. >> i'm afraid we have to wrap up. let's think our panelists one more time. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> we see the president arriving in washington dc this morning __ after his two week vacation in hawaii.

the president waving and wishing a happy new year at the white house. in a couple of days, the president will be back on the road to promote his economic agenda, traveling to michigan, arizona, and tennessee. to talk about manufacturing, housing and educational policies. he will highlight those in his state of the union address to congress. that address set for january 20. including a mix of legislative proposal, and action that president will take that does not need congressional approval. with republicans taking control of both the house and senate. >> the 114th congress gals in this tuesday at noon eastern.

watch live coverage of the house on c_span, and the senate live on c_span2. track the gop led congress and have your say as events unfold on the c_span networks, c_span radio, and c_span.org. new congress, best access. on c_span. >> now, a conversation with retired astronaut, walter cunningham. he talks with jim clash about the early apollo missions aand the future with nasa. this is 50 minutes. >> thank you, will. and thank you, guys, for coming out so early. we have a big program today. and we are very honored to have with us __ well, to start, and i think this is great, chronologically, apollo 7 astronaut, walter cunningham. walt was on the pivotal apollo 7 flight, which was really make

or break for the apollo flight program. they had sent some unmanned ones up and, of course, they had the terrible fire on apollo 1. these guys had to go up and make it happen, and they did. this is one of the greatest. let's hear it for walt cunningham. [applause] >> that is a pretty good welcome. i keep hearing i'm going to call him glenn cunningham, the old quarterback. anyway, we were talking before __ this is a great story, and i want you to explain it. evidently, the number 13 and 14 had a lot to do with your career. talk about it.

>> well, actually, like a lot of people, you learn things later that you didn't know when it was critical. but it must've been about 10 years ago, i get an email from a friend of mine. paul was the head of affairs when nasa selected me back in 1963. how many here were alive in 1963? oh, a few of you. anyhow, after i got selected, i met paul. he was the only person i knew who was associated with nasa. then after i left nasa, i wrote a book called "the all_american boys". and __ and paul was a friend of mine, and i gave paul a copy of that book. about 10 years ago, before paul died, i get an email from paul.

he says __ oh, i read the book and it is really good. i sent an email back saying, paul, i give you that book __ you know __ 1977, and you're just reading it? and he says, well, i went to the index and checked what you said about me. and i put it aside. and he had one more __ he said, you know your number 14, don't you? >> and you were like, what does that mean? >> in our group, we were the third group of astronauts. they had seven, the nine, and we had 14. nobody ever made it public or anything at all like that. i said __ here is the story. he