by Secularists who desire the bundle of rights, liberty, and equality associated with the secular liberal state have a serious intellectual problem, namely, what is the source of these rights, liberty, and equality? With only a very thin conception of the person and the person’s place in community, the secularist struggles for thick answers to these pressing questions.
Theists, and particularly Christians, in the United States have two different problems. First, we have a proposed source of rights, liberty, and equality based on our thick understanding of the human person and her place in community, but our reasons are rooted in faith or a faith based philosophy that is not accessible to all. In short, in our diverse and pluralistic society, we suffer from seemingly non-universally accessible reasons for acting this way rather than that. Second, we have a reputation, deserved or not, of being intolerant of those who seek to lead lives that diverge from traditional Christian teaching and practice.
Tag Archive for 'secularist'
by Turkey’s newest crisis pitting secularist plotters against the conservative Islamic government is one of the world’s dramatic examples of the distrust between proponents of clear church-state divisions and those who believe that religion and politics may be useful or even necessary companions in creating a just and moral society. One of my fall seminar students suggested that the cycle of military coups in Turkey when army officers decide that religion is damaging the state may simply be Turkey’s distinctive way of navigating church-state issues.
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