Religion in Politics: Constitutional and Moral Perspectives - Tapa dura

Most Americans are religious believers. Among these there is disagreement about many fundamental religious/moral matters. Because the United States is both such a religious country and such a religiously pluralistic country, the issue of the proper role of religion in politics is important to political debate. This work asks what role religious arguments play, if any, either in public debate about what political choices to make or as a basis of political choice? It is principally concerned with political choices that ban or otherwise disfavour one or another sort of human conduct based on the view that the conduct is immoral. It divides the controversy into two debates: the constitutionally proper role of religious arguments in politics, and a related, but distinct, debate about the morally proper role. It concludes that political choices about the morality of human conduct should not be based on religion.

About the Author Michael J. Perry is the Howard J. Trienens Chair in Law at Northwestern University. Among his numerous writings are The Constitution in the Courts (Oxford, 1994) and Love & Power (Oxford, 1991).