Publication Date
2006
Abstract
Jason initially considers and rejects philosophical positions that call for citizens to put aside their religious beliefs when they participate in the political sphere.' He advocates, instead, the freedom to live a "religiously integrated existence" in all areas of life, including political life. Here, Jason reminds me of another Carter-Professor Stephen L. Carter of the Yale Law School. In The Culture of Disbelief, Professor Carter contends that "[in our sensible zeal to keep religion from dominating our politics, we have created a political and legal culture that presses the religiously faithful to be other than themselves, to act publicly, and sometimes privately as well, as though their faith does not matter to them."
Both Carters highlight a problem many Christians face when confronted with arguments for a secular public square. To understand the problem, we need to recognize that calls for the segregation of religious and political thought present a moral question: how should a Christian conduct himself in his interaction with the political process? To be a Christian means, in part, that one approaches moral questions within the context of a Christian worldview. To tackle moral inquiries from some other perspective would be to act as something other than a Christian.
Recommended Citation
Beck, Randy
(2006)
"The City of God and the Cities of Men: A Response to Jason Carter,"
Georgia Law Review: Vol. 41:
No.
1, Article 5.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/glr/vol41/iss1/5