While the influence of religion on political behavior is widely recognized, (1) theologically-rooted norms, and the elites who hold or are influenced by them, frame and shape American policy choices to an extent that is not appreciated; (2) the country?s increasing religious diversity is affecting our ability to forge consensus or to govern; and (3) disciplinary ?silos? have prevented scholars from developing a sufficiently comprehensive synthesis of existing scholarship to adequately describe the nature and effects of the religious underpinnings of contemporary political polarization. As a result, while lawyers, political scientists and others recognize the more explicitly religious components of America?s current polarization, we fail to appreciate the extent to which conflicting policy preferences are rooted in religiously-shaped normative frameworks. Much like the blind men and the elephant, we encounter different parts of the animal. We see a tree, a wall, a snake?but we fail to apprehend the size, shape and power of the whole elephant.
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Religious Paradigms: Thinking in Red and Blue
while the influence of religion on political behavior is widely recognized, (1) theologically-rooted norms, and the elites who hold or are influenced by them, frame and shape American policy choices to an extent that is not appreciated; (2) the country?s increasing religious diversity is affecting our ability to forge consensus or to govern; and (3) disciplinary ?silos? have prevented scholars from developing a sufficiently comprehensive synthesis of existing scholarship to adequately describe the nature and effects of the religious underpinnings of contemporary political polarization. As a result, while lawyers, political scientists and others recognize the more explicitly religious components of America?s current polarization, we fail to appreciate the extent to which conflicting policy preferences are rooted in religiously-shaped normative frameworks. Much like the blind men and the elephant, we encounter different parts of the animal. We see a tree, a wall, a snake?but we fail to apprehend the size, shape and power of the whole elephant.
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Mr. Pence’s Planet
Indiana Congressman Mike Pence and I clearly occupy different planets. On May 19th, the Congressman issued a press release in which he answered the election-year question "Are we better off today than we were four years ago?" with a resounding yes.
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Circles
Libertarians insist that the political spectrum is not a straight line, with ?right-wingers? on one end and ?left-wingers? on the other. Instead, it is a circle, where extremists on opposite poles touch?and share a desire to impose their particular brands of political correctness on the rest of us. Extremists may disagree on ideology, but they share a real fondness for authoritarianism.
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Texas Morality
The Texas challenge raises two very important constitutional issues, privacy and equal protection. The privacy argument makes the same point my students made: government doesn?t belong in anyone?s bedroom. Sodomy statutes, like statutes against fornication or laws forbidding the use of birth control, are simply not within the proper power of the legislature. If the Justices rule on the basis of privacy, overturning the infamous Bowers v. Hardwick decision, then all sodomy statutes will be invalid.
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