Religious Conviction and Political Advocacy
The Modern Schoolman, Vol. 78, No. 125, January/March 2001
10 Pages Posted: 10 Sep 2009
Date Written: 2001
Abstract
Citizens in liberal democracies advocate all sorts of things for all sorts of idiosyncratic and even silly reasons and yet it is thought by many liberals that the person offering those reasons does not violate some deep principles of good “citizenship” unless the reasons either invite the label “religious” or, as with racist reasons, tend to undermine the values of liberal democracy itself. But why single out religion in this way? If democratic politics thrives on the Millian idea of the marketplace of ideas, are we to assume that only religious ideas and perhaps antidemocratic ideas lack such market value? In this essay I will raise some (perhaps naïve) questions and try out some tentative and highly revisable suggestions.
Keywords: Democracy, religion, politics
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