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Full-Text Articles in Religion Law
Religion And Polarization: Various Relations And How To Contribute Positively Rather Than Negatively, Kent Greenawalt
Religion And Polarization: Various Relations And How To Contribute Positively Rather Than Negatively, Kent Greenawalt
Faculty Scholarship
The theme of this Essay is that in our present culture, we need badly to understand and accept those who see things differently from ourselves, and to afford people some latitude not to directly violate their deepest convictions. For example, those with religious convictions that marriage should be between men and women need to see why those with gay sexual inclinations feel strongly they are entitled to equal treatment and the latter need not reject as deeply prejudicial all those whose religious convictions lead them to subscribe to the more limited, unwise, historical view about marriage. This understanding on both …
Religion And American Political Judgments, Kent Greenawalt
Religion And American Political Judgments, Kent Greenawalt
Faculty Scholarship
This Article addresses the extent to which officials and citizens should rely directly on their religious convictions to reach political judgments and make political arguments. Reviewing opposing "exclusive" and "inclusive" positions, this Article suggests that officials generally should not articulate arguments in religious terms. Many officials should have a greater freedom to rely on religious bases of judgments, and private citizens should not regard themselves as constrained in the manner of officials. This approach, defended initially from the perspective of detached political philosophy, fits comfortably with a variety of overarching religious views. The constraints it suggests should be regarded as …
Religious Expression In The Public Square – The Building Blocks For An Intermediate Position, Kent Greenawalt
Religious Expression In The Public Square – The Building Blocks For An Intermediate Position, Kent Greenawalt
Faculty Scholarship
The problem of religious expression in the public square is not primarily legal in a narrow sense. We are not talking about whether people are allowed to voice certain kinds of opinions or to vote on certain kinds of grounds. The problem is about how citizens and officials in liberal democracies should act. My own position on this problem is an intermediate one, in a sense I shall shortly explain. Its plausibility depends on some sense of the strengths and weaknesses of positions at each end of the spectrum. I shall begin with a thumbnail sketch of these.