Liberal Democracy and Religious Faith

Abstract

[The] affirmation of universal human rights [that characterizes] modern liberal political culture [represents an] authentic development[] of the gospel.… – Charles Taylor One sometimes encounters the ignorant sentiment that persons of deep religious faith cannot truly embrace liberal democracy. Again, my principal focus in this book is the liberal democracy of which I am a citizen: the United States. Most citizens of the United States are religious believers, and for most of them, their religious faith gives them a powerful reason to hold liberal democracy within their embrace: It is a part of the content of the religious faith of most citizens of the United States that every human being has inherent dignity and is inviolable. A liberal democracy is, as such – as a liberal democracy – committed to the proposition that every human being has inherent dignity and is inviolable. So the religious faith of most citizens of the United States gives them a powerful reason to embrace liberal democracy. Let me elaborate. The morality of human rights is as close to a global morality as we human beings have ever achieved (or probably will ever achieve); and, relatedly, the language of human rights has become the moral lingua franca . Nonetheless, this fundamental question remains: Is the morality of human rights true? Recall from the preceding chapter that the morality of human rights consists of two connected claims: Every human being has (equal) inherent dignity. […]