Faith and Politics: The Rhetoric of Church-State Separation

Criticism of religiously motivated contributions to public policy debate is largely misconceived. It assumes that the mischief which constitutional separation of church and state is supposed to cure is a domination of the state by the church. This presents only one side of the story. Subservience by...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal for the academic study of religion
Main Author: Jensen, Darryn M. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Equinox Publ. 2005
In: Journal for the academic study of religion
Further subjects:B Politics and religion
B Secularization
B Church and state
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Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:Criticism of religiously motivated contributions to public policy debate is largely misconceived. It assumes that the mischief which constitutional separation of church and state is supposed to cure is a domination of the state by the church. This presents only one side of the story. Subservience by the church to the state should also be avoided. The law of a liberal state is legitimate to the extent that it does not conflict with the basic moral values of its citizens. Therefore, an ongoing conversation about basic values is necessary. Allowing churches and individual believers the freedom to make distinctive ‘religious’ contributions to this conversation is consistent with the separation of church and state. It is an aspect of the liberal democratic state’s obligation to listen to all perspectives on difficult moral issues. A close relationship between church and state, on the other hand, has the capacity to impede the conversation.
ISSN:2047-7058
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the academic study of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/jasr.v18i1.25