This (30-slide) powerpoint presentation was the introduction to a course on Religion and Political Controversy in the U.S. Largely based on Barbara McGraw\'s "Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously" (2005), it outlines the historical origins of the American political theology behind the Constitution, frames the stakes and issues, and introduces the controversies that my students wrestled with throughout the course.

1. San Jose State University
Humanities Department
Program in Comparative Religious Studies
RELS 162:
Religion and Political
Controversy
Professor Jeffrey W. Danese
Spring Semester 2010

2. Introduction to the Course and to
the Assignment
Course Description
In this course, we will examine how religion is a major force in
contemporary conflicts in America, and how religion plays a
role in the ongoing political life of the United States. The
course addresses the role of institutional religions and
personal religious practice in shaping public debates.
Religious pluralism in the US and the history of recent and
contemporary events will provide us with the contexts for
examining these and related “contemporary problems (e.g.
ecology, abortion, war, gender, sexuality and race) as
interpreted by a diverse range of American ethno-religious
groups” (SJSU course catalogue).

3. The Assignment
 Class divided into 7 groups of 4-5 students tasked
with reading a book selected from a list
 Each Group to select controversial topic related to
the book, and develop a 15 minute video pod cast
that complies with university accessibility
standards and to be posted to SJSU’s iTunes U
web site
 Based on instructor-provided format; to outline the
topic, the stakes, to ask questions, and provide an
overview of scholarly perspectives and resources
for further reading

4. The Presentations
1. Introduction to “America’s Sacred Ground”
- Prof. Jeff Danese
2. Republican Gomorrah - Group 1
3. Persp’s on Race, Ethnicity, and Rel - Group 2
4. What’s the Matter With Kansas? - Group 3
5. American Fascists - Group 4
6. Terror in the Name of God - Group 5
7. God in the White House - Group 6
8. God and Race in America - Group 7
9. Summary and Conclusion
- Prof. Jeff Danese

5. Presentation #1: Introduction to
“America’s Sacred Ground”
Primary text books for the course:
 McGraw & Formicola (Eds). (2005) Taking
Religious Pluralism Seriously: Spiritual Politics
on America’s Sacred Ground, Baylor University
Press.
 Fowler, Hertzke, Olson, & Dulk. (2010). Religion and
Politics in America: Faith, Culture, and Strategic
Choices, 4th
Ed. Westview Press.

6. A Place to Start…
 Barbara A. McGraw and
“America’s Sacred Ground”
 Problem: current polarized public debate
 Solution: rediscovery of founding fathers’ idea for
American political system
2 Texts: Polemics and practical solutions
and/or
Objectivity and comprehensiveness ??

7. Building the Good Society
 Traditional Christian political theory:
 Premised on sinful nature of humans that
required restraint, uniformity, coercion.
 Church’s moral order enforced by state
 State’s authority supported by church
 Top-Down

8. Protestant Reformation
John Locke (1632-1704) - secular or religious
philosopher?
 Priesthood of believers
 Traditional top-down system corrupt
 God revealed to individuals through revelation, insight,
nature, and reason.
 Government’s duty is to protect individual conscience,
inalienable rights.
 The true and the good emerges from the ground-up.
 McGraw sees Locke as a religious philosopher, though
most historians do not.

9. John Locke’s Political Theology
 Limited government and church
 Relies on goodwill of common folk
 “social contract”
 “spontaneous societies”
 voluntary participation ensures living by the
courage of one’s convictions.
 Understood “rights” as “natural” - from God
 Freedom of conscience, speech, thought,
association, etc. - all necessary conditions for
individuals to create the Good Society.

10. Roger Williams’ Influence
Martha Nussbaum argues in her recent book, From Disgust to
Humanity (Oxford, 2010) and in her upcoming book, Not for
Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (Princeton, 2010)
that Roger Williams (1603-1683) is at least as important as
Locke in articulating the ideas of the American Constitutional
tradition.
“…sixthly it is the will and command of God…the permission of the
most Paganish, Jewish, Turkish or anti-Christian consciences
and worships be extended to all men and all countries.” -- The
Bloody Tenent of Persecution for Cause or Conscience, 1644
“Your Selves pretend liberty of conscience, but alas! - it is but Self,
the Great God Self - only to your Selves.” -- letter to governors
of Massachusetts and Connecticut

11. Martha Nussbaum
on Puritan Orthodoxy and Roger Williams’ influence
on freedom on conscience (speech, 2006)

12. Good Society as Free for ALL, not a
“Free-for-all”
 Aiming for the True and the Good
 Important Assumption or Moral Grounding
 Founding fathers assumed that the “pursuit of
happiness” was not merely self-interest
 Liberty understood as precondition for
expressing one’s conscience publicly
 This Public Forum
makes the Good Society
possible

13. First Core Principle:
Freedom of Conscience
 Whose freedom of conscience is to be heard
in the Public Forum?
 Is the United States a “Christian” country? -
Depends….
 Arguments for depend on extremely broad and
ahistorical definitions of the term, “christian” and are
most often made in support of a political agenda.
 Arguments against depend on particular de-
contextualized quotes from key figures and assume
an extreme form of secularity.

14. Examples
“…neither pagan, nor Mohometan, nor Jew ought
to be excluded from the civil rights of the
commonwealth because of his religion.” -- John
Lock, Letter Concerning Toleration, 1690
“The insertion [of Jesus Christ in the preamble]
was rejected by the great majority, in proof that
they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of
its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the
Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindoo,
and the Infidel of every denomination.” --
Thomas Jefferson, “Autobiography,” 1821.

15. More Examples
“Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of
America is not, in any sense, founded on the
Christian religion, as it has in itself no character of
enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of
Mussulmen, …it is declared by the parties that no
pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever
produce an interruption of the harmony existing
between the two countries.” -- from the Treaty of Tripoli,
1797
“I fully agree with the Presbyterians, that true freedom
embraces the Mahomitan and the Gentoo as well as
the Christian religion.” -- Richard Henry Lee, “To James
Madison,” 1784

16. Beyond even Locke’s Inclusiveness
“Locke denies tolerance to those…who deny the existence of a
god…it was a great thing to go so far…but where he stopped we
may go on.” -- Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on Religion,” 1776.
“It is true, we are not disposed to differ much, at present, about
religion, but when we are making a constitution, it is to be hoped,
for ages and millions yet unborn….” -- Richard Henry Lee, Letters
from the Federal Farmer to the Republican, 1777
 Other founding fathers dissented from this
broad of inclusion in the Conscientious Public
Forum, but these and other quotes indicate a
far more expansive consideration on their part
than is generally acknowledged today.

17. Second Core Principle:
Equal Dignity
 Because liberty alone would eventually be co-opted
by “factions” in a constant “state of war,” an impartial
means of resolving disputes was necessary.
 A judiciary and legal system based on the equal
dignity of every human being was the basis of the
“social contract” - the price for disallowing people to
take the law into their own hands.
 “All men (sic) are created equal…”
 Each is made in the image of God.

18. The Two-Tiered Public Forum
 In her Taking Religious Pluralism
Seriously, Barbara McGraw formalizes
the Public Forum into two parts:
1. Government’s legitimate actions and
responsibilities to protect and maintain the
freedom and dignity of citizens in the
Public Forum.
2. The religious, moral, and ethical
discussions about the True and the Good

19. 1. The Civic Public Forum
Regarding the legitimate authority and actions of
government, politics, law enforcement, and the
judiciary, based on two principles:
1. No Harm: all citizens are free in beliefs and activities
as long as they do no harm to others.
2. Consistency: like a reversed golden rule, we can not
deny to another what we do not deny to ourselves.
No hypocrisy.
“Only those moral values that are compatible with the
Civic Public Forum principles are legitimate
contributions in the Civic Public Forum for law and
government enforcement.” (McGraw, p. 15)

20. 2. The Conscientious Public Forum
Regarding the individual and collective duties in
“communities of conscience” - not private but
a necessarily public practice of persuasion
and voluntary acceptance of moral standards
1. The duty to discern what conscience directs -
beyond one’s own self-interest.
2. The duty to participate, demonstrate,
discourse publicly - with honesty and respect.

21. Moral Virtue as Public Duty
 All do not have to believe in the political theology of
America’s Sacred Ground - but all should recognize
that it is what makes the discussion possible in the first
place.
 Freedom is not for one’s individual happiness, but for
the happiness of everyone.
 Moral development and the cultivation of virtue are
necessary to fulfill the purpose of the nation: to create
the Good Society.
 “To suppose that any form of government will secure
liberty and happiness without any virtue in the people
is a chimerical idea.” -- James Madison, Speech in
Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788.

22. Renouncing the Current Debate’s
False Dichotomy and False Choice
 The current polarized political discourse
undermines the framework, purpose, and
principles of our nation.
 “Liberals” against “conservatives” connotes a
trial between two “sides” with voters as jury in a
zero-sum competition.
 NOT what the founding fathers or Locke
envisioned.
 Should be broad discussions, debates,
exchanging ideas, seeking understanding in a
cooperative effort

23. False and Destructive Dichotomy
 Media and politicians’ portrayal of “secular left” and
“religious right” obscures other voices and the founders’
intent.
 Secularists can not explain references to God, the divine,
prayer, etc.
 Religionists can not explain references to other religions,
reservations about religion, etc.
 …because both are distorted extremes, both sides
have lost sight of America’s Sacred Ground.

24. Separation of Church and State
 Religious right seeks to present the image of a
monolithic “Christianity” that minimizes historical,
doctrinal, denominational differences.
 Secular left seeks to keep the entire Public Forum
free from any and all religious and moral language.
 …BOTH are wrong and either would entail a return to
the top-down political worldview that the founders
repudiated.
 They separated church and state for religious reasons!
 Not Religion vs. Secularism but Domination vs. Liberty

25. False Choices
 Moral absolutism vs. moral relativism
 Inevitable clash of worldviews, conflict
 Pluralism does NOT mean moral relativism

26. Americans are more tolerant than
the loudest religious voices would
suggest….

27. Conclusion
1. Religious right and secular left both entrenched;
reified positions, narrow reasoning.
2. Standoff glorifies the conflict, “culture wars”
 … therefore both sides need to rediscover
America’s Sacred Ground
 … and ALL of the world’s wisdom traditions have
ideas to offer
 … and ALL ethnic, religious, and ideological
communities of conscience need to participate and
to be heard.

28. Concerns and Challenges
 What role for empirical evidence?
 What about the party crashers?
 How to address the dominating role of the media?
 Freedom of speech and hate speech?
 Corporate influence on elections?
 Individual rights compared to capabilities or
opportunities?
 How to get minority faiths to participate more in the
Conscientious Public Forum?

29. Resources for Further Reading
 Frank Lambert, Religion in Amerian Politics: A Short History
(Princeton, 2008)
 Mark Noll & Luke El Harlow, Eds., Religion and American
Politics: From the Colonial Period to the Present (Oxford, 2007)
 Martin Marty, Pilgrims in Their Own Land: 500 Years of
Religion in America (Little, Brown, 1984)
 Diana L. Eck, A New Religious America: How a ‘Christian
Country’ Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse
Nation (Harper, 2002)
 Djupe, Paul A. and Laura R. Olson. Encyclopedia of American
Religion and Politics. New York: Facts On File, 2003.
 Schultz, Jeffrey D., John G. West, Jr. and Iain MacLean, Eds.
Encyclopedia of Religion in American Politics. Phoenix, AZ:
Oryx Press, 1999.

30. Internet Resources
 http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/religion.html U.S. Library of Congress on-line
exhibit of documents and music from the Library's collections. Religion and the Founding
of the American Republic explores the role religion played in the founding of the
American colonies, in the shaping of early American life and politics, and in forming the
American Republic.
 http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/category/religion-american-politics/ The Immanent Frame:
Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere is the title of this collaborative blog space
hosted by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC)
 http://pewforum.org/ The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has some of the best
research, survey data, and reviews available anywhere. Good news articles and well-
organized site.
 http://www.religioustolerance.org/ Very good and candid explanations of terms, media
discourses on many topics involving religion. The layout is a bit plodding with many
advertisements, but very clear, direct, unbiased, and fair-minded.
 http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/ From Vanderbilt University, this is the non-profit
First Amendment Center’s Web site, featuring comprehensive research coverage of key
issues and topics, daily news, a unique First Amendment Library and guest analyses by
respected legal specialists.