The relationship between religion and public life has become increasingly more complex in recent years.
On Tuesday, the Center for American Progress released its new book: Debating the Divine. A collection of short essays, the book explores the role of religion in shaping our national policies and our public identity. Coinciding with the announcement of the release, the center sponsored a panel in order to give essayists the opportunity to defend their work.
I attend the panel and was delighted to hear such a lively and intellectual discussion. The three panelists were David Hollinger, the Preston Hotchkins Professor of American History at the University of California, Berkeley; Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core; and Melissa Rogers, Professor of Religion and Public Policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School.
Each panelist approached the relationship between church and state from a distinctive angle.
Hollinger discussed the importance of civic patriotism. He argued that while religion and faith may play an important role in the personal lives of most Americans, it is national solidarity and civic patriotism that must ultimately govern public debate.
Hollinger argued that if politicians use their faith to defend their ideas and leadership abilities, they must then open that faith to public scrutiny.
“If religious ideas are to enter the public sphere, they should be subject to the same rules that apply to the discussion of other ideas,” stated Hollinger. “But this rarely happens.”
Patel rejected Hollinger’s “check your faith at the door” attitude and instead championed religious pluralism. Defining America as religiously devout and religiously diverse, Patel explored the opportunities and the challenges we face at this juncture of fierce religious conflict across the globe.
In a true democracy, he argued, the people can determine what matters to them. Therefore, people’s religious faiths should be trumpeted and used to create positive policy.
Patel asserted, “From partnerships on global warming, environmental justice, poverty global AIDS, health care, and more, an impressive range of religious and secular groups are bringing their voices of moral urgency to the most pressing problems of our day.”
Patel was careful however to assert that all faiths, as well as non-faiths, should be treated with an equal display of reverence.
Finally, Rogers spoke attempting to reconcile the differences in approaches articulated by Hollinger and Patel.
“Our tradition of religious freedom,” she said, “usually recognizes that people of faith have loyalties to do different spheres (earthly and spiritual), and that most will consider their loyalty to the spiritual sphere that takes precedence.”
Therefore, Rogers argues, our commitment to religious freedom must help us recommit to respect the rights of conscience.
She states in the book: “There is something un-American and wrong when religious people act as if they have better, rather than equal rights to participate in the debate of public issues. We should not tolerate, much less perpetuate, the notion that there is or should be some kind of governmental or civic hierarchy based on what faith a person is or is not.”
The relationship between religion and public life has become increasingly more complex in recent years as America struggles to redefine the role of faith in an era of mounting religious diversity. The Center for American Progress’s thought-provoking new book does a nice job respecting religion while championing an America with room and reverence for all.
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