Liberal Civic Education and Religious Fundamentalism: The Case of God v. John Rawls?

Abstract

Nowadays it often appears that liberals have been outflanked on the issue of diversity. Political activists and theorists increasingly insist that greater weight be given to what distinguishes particular groups from others. Those who clamor for a "politics of difference" are as likely to be attacking as seeking to extend liberal values and practices. Iris Marion Young, for example, wants a politics that "attends to rather than represses difference," in which no group "is stereotyped, silenced, or marginalized."' She dismisses the ideal of impartiality and such notions as moral universality, human nature, essentialism, and various other pre-postmodern sins and vices, because all deny the basic significance of group-based differences: "Groups cannot be socially equal unless their specific experience, culture, and social contributions are publicly affirmed and recognized."2 Young rejects "melting pot ideals of assimilation and unity," not surprisingly, arguing that the "desire for political unity will suppress difference, and tend to exclude some voices and perspectives from the public."3 She advocates "bilingual-