Reaping the Whirlwind: Liberal Democracy and the Religious AxisAs early as the sixteenth century the liberal democratic state has been forced to confront the question of religion in politics. The result has been a tense and uncomfortable balancing act. Today, in the public square of liberal democracy, a number of religious confessions and beliefs compete for attention. In the American experience, some sense of religious pluralism and relative social harmony has been maintained. However, for this relationship to prevail, a tension must continue to exist—one that balances the political and social pursuits of self-interest with meeting the objectives of the common good. In Reaping the Whirlwind, John R. Pottenger shows how this process began in the modern world, and how societies attempt to manage this ongoing conflict. The first part of the book lays the groundwork of his analysis by using examples from history to demonstrate the genesis of political and religious "whirlwinds." It goes on to explore contemporary case studies, such as conflicts between Mormons and Evangelicals in the United States, liberation theology in Latin America, Islam and the state in Uzbekistan, and radical Christian reconstructionism. Pottenger believes that the formal institutions of liberal democracy should maintain this turbulence, even as religious activism threatens to upset the balance. He concludes by advocating religious liberty and recognizing the individual and social need for expression. At the same time, he maintains that the survival of liberal democracy requires that these religious traditions not dominate the public sphere. |
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... maintain a moral society. The flight from pluralism becomes a political cause: to return America to the moral conditions of its past, to a Godly state of affairs. Many religious leaders attribute the moral decline of civil society to ...
... maintain that the failure of recent court decisions to realize the social benefit of state support of divinely inspired moral standards has damaged the moral fabric of the nation. Furthermore, the roots of judicial failure can be found ...
... maintain, and continue to pro- vide such a basis even in the present. The Ten Commandments have typically been interpreted as repre- senting categories of behavior that are general rather than specific.6 Although specific instances are ...
... maintains that “ morality is a matter of fact , not opinion . Correct moral rules are established by God , not by man . They are not human constructs , but facts that God has revealed about himself and his order for the world . " 29 In ...
... maintains that the prohibition of congressional recognition of an established religion originally prevented only the federal govern- ment from establishing a state religion at the national level. The orig- inal intent of the clause ...
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Reaping the Whirlwind: Liberal Democracy and the Religious Axis John R. Pottenger No preview available - 2007 |