Conflict and Compromise in American Religious Politics: A Review Essay

Abstract

IS COMPROMISE POSSIBLE WHEN IT COMES to religious politics? The answer often appears to be no. Nearly every day seems to offer more evidence of the unbridgeable divisions in this country that are being created by religious difference. Just consider the events in the few weeks prior to the time when I finished this review. In North Carolina, state officials moved to stop local governments from issuing nondiscrimination ordinances. In Mississippi, a new religious liberty law was adopted that allows medical professionals and wedding-related businesses to deny their services to couples based on their religious beliefs. And in South Dakota, the governor vetoed a law that required transgender students to use the school bathrooms and locker rooms matching their sex at birth. When events like these are taken into account, it is not surprising that some scholars have forecast an American politics marked by increasing and unending religious conflict. For example, in his influential book Culture Wars, James Davison Hunter famously argued that American society was being split into two opposing camps based on differing perspectives on the ultimate source of moral authority. On the one side, you have the orthodox, individuals who are committed to the idea of universal, eternal moral truth. On the other, you have the progressives, those who instead believe that morality is more relative and shaped by the time in which we live. When people cannot even agree on basic moral standards, what hope is there for a peaceful politics?