Taking Liberties

In this new work Robert Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State provides a polemic against the so-called religious right. It’s a book, on first blush, rather easily dismissed: on first reading one could be forgiven for seeing in this short work very little that could contribute to a serious discussion of that very serious question of religion’s place in American public life. A closer reading, however, reveals this book to be an enlightening exemplum of the failures of what some now call the secular left. It displays, in fact, what is perhaps best called the secular left’s c risis of civilizational order. The religious right is displayed as acting almost entirely in bad faith. “Most religious conservatives,” we learn, “determine their opinion on a given matter first then hunt for a Bible passage to back it up” (p. 48). Our author finds “this stunt” so tiring (p. 99). Further, public schools are “fat and juicy targets for the right wing” (p. 83). Educational vouchers have nothing to do with affording superior outcomes for students caught in inadequate public schools, for “the bishops don’t try to pretend that their schools serve any secular purpose” (p. 102) and “no independent studies have shown a boost in student academic performance” (p. 102). Moreover, any moral instruction based on natural law these schools may seek to impart, as well as any similar stance on public issues in policy debates more generally, is, simply, “gobbledygook” (p. 125).

Bishops · Civil liberties · Epistemology · Faith · Nothing · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Reading (process) · Secular education · Separation of church and state · Sociology · Theology · Voucher · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Philosophy · Religious Education and Schools