A Culture of Engagement: Law, Religion, and Morality

Description

Religious traditions in the United States are characterized by ongoing tension between assimilation to the broader culture, as typified by mainline Protestant churches, and defiant rejection of cultural incursions, as witnessed by more sectarian movements such as Mormonism and Hassidism. However, legal theorist and Catholic theologian Cathleen Kaveny contends there is a third possibility―a culture of engagement―that accommodates and respects tradition. It also recognizes the need to interact with culture to remain relevant and to offer critiques of social, political, legal, and economic practices. Kaveny suggests that rather than avoid the crisscross of the religious and secular spheres of life, we should use this conflict as an opportunity to come together and to encounter, challenge, contribute to, and correct one another. Focusing on five broad areas of interest―Law as a Teacher, Religious Liberty and Its Limits, Conversations about Culture, Conversations about Belief, and Cases and Controversies―Kaveny demonstrates how thoughtful and purposeful engagement can contribute to rich, constructive, and difficult discussions between moral and cultural traditions. This provocative collection of Kaveny's articles from Commonweal magazine, substantially revised and updated from their initial publication, provides astonishing insight into a range of hot-button issues like abortion, assisted suicide, government-sponsored torture, contraception, the Ashley Treatment, capital punishment, and the role of religious faith in a pluralistic society. At turns masterful, insightful, and inspirational, A Culture of Engagement is a welcome reminder of what can be gained when a diversity of experiences and beliefs is brought to bear on American public life. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 12 Introduction: Life in the Crisscross......Page 14 Part 1 Law as a Teacher......Page 34 1 Rules Are Not Enough: Why Judges Need Empathy......Page 38 2 Teacher or Remedy: What Is the Law for?......Page 41 3 Letter versus Spirit: Why the Constitution Needs Interpreting......Page 44 4 Remember the Mormons: Thinking about the Nature of Marriage......Page 47 5 Regulating Abortion: What Did the Roberts Court Do?......Page 50 6 Caught in the Gap: What Hostility to Health-Care Reform Has Wrought......Page 53 7 "Peaceful and Private": Montana's Supreme Court Rules on Assisted Suicide......Page 56 8 More Than a Refuge: Why Immigration Officials Should Steer Clear of Churches......Page 59 9 Justice or Vengeance: Is the Death Penalty Cruel and Unusual?......Page 62 10 Undue Process: The Evisceration of Habeas Corpus......Page 65 11 Bad Evidence: Not only Is Torture Immoral, It Doesn’t Work......Page 68 12 Perverted Logic: Behind the Bush Administration's "Torture Memo"......Page 71 13 Regret Is Not Enough: Why the President Should Read Paul Ramsey......Page 74 Part 2 Religious Liberty and Its Limits......Page 78 14 The Right to Refuse: How Broad Should Conscience Protections Be?......Page 84 15 The Bishops and Religious Liberty: Are Catholics Becoming a Sect?......Page 88 16 Is the Government "Defining Religion"?: The Bishops' Case against the Mandate......Page 95 17 Defining Exemptions Does Not Equal Defining Religion: A Category Mistake......Page 98 18 An Evolving Accommodation: Religious Minorities and the Common Good......Page 102 19 Employment Division v. Smith: The Eye of the Storm......Page 108 20 Smith, RFRA, and the Bishops' Claims: Neutral Laws of General Applicability?......Page 113 21 The Key Supreme Court Case for the Mandate: U.S. v. Lee......Page 117 22 Reading the Tea Leaves: Why the Supreme Court Is Unlikely to Block the Contraception Mandate......Page 123 23 A Minefield: The Troubling Implications of the Hobby Lobby Decision......Page 126 Part 3 Conversations about Culture......Page 132 24 Watch Your Mouth: Sage Advice from St. James......Page 140 25 Model Atheist: Jeffrey Stout and the Culture Wars......Page 143 26 Bishops and Politics: Lessons from Australia......Page 146 27 Moving beyond the Culture Wars: Why a Bioethics Council Needs Diversity......Page 149 28 A Flawed Analogy: Prochoice Politicians and the Third Reich......Page 153 29 Sick Minds: What Can We Do to Prevent Another Tucson?......Page 156 30 Crime or Tragedy? Murder and Suicide at Villanova......Page 159 31 Dignity and the End of Life: How Not to Talk about Assisted Suicide......Page 162 32 The Right Questions: Catholic Colleges and Pop Culture......Page 165 33 Either/Or? Catholicism Is More Complex......Page 169 Part 4 Conversations about Belief......Page 174 34 Family Feuds: What's Keeping Catholics Apart?......Page 180 35 The Martyrdom of John Roberts: Catholic Squabbling, Then and Now......Page 183 36 No Academic Question: Should the CTSA Seek "Conservative" Views?......Page 186 37 The "New" Feminism? John Paul II and the 1912 Encyclopedia......Page 190 38 Catholic Kosher: Is the Ban on Contraception Just an Identity Marker?......Page 193 39 The Big Chill: Humanae Vitae Dissenters Need to Find a Voice......Page 196 40 How about NOT Firing Her?: Moral Norms and Catholic School Teachers......Page 199 41 Truth or Consequences: In Ireland, Straying Far from the Mental Reservation......Page 203 42 Unspeakable Sins: Why We Need to Talk about Them......Page 207 43 A Darkening: Why a Church Scandal Does More Harm Than the New Atheism......Page 211 44 The Long Goodbye: Why Some Devout Catholics Are Leaving the Church......Page 214 45 That ’70s Church: What It Got Right......Page 217 Part 5 Cases and Controversies......Page 222 46 The Consistent Ethic: An Ethic of "Life," Not "Purity"......Page 228 47 Contraception, Again: Where Can We Find Compromise?......Page 232 48 When Does Life Begin? Two Prolife Philosophers Disagree......Page 236 49 Why Prolife? It's about People, Not Abstractions......Page 239 50 The ACLU Takes on the Bishops: Tragedy Leads to a Misguided Lawsuit......Page 242 51 Co-Opted by Evil? Abortion and Amnesty International......Page 245 52 Boycotts in a Pluralistic Society: How and Where Do We Draw Moral Lines?......Page 249 53 Forever Young: The Trouble with the "Ashley Treatment"......Page 253 54 Risk and Responsibility: Why Insurance Is the Wrong Way to Think about Health Care......Page 256 55 A Horrific Crime: But Is Execution the Answer?......Page 259 56 Could the Church Have Gotten It Wrong? Let’s Look at the Facts......Page 262 Conclusion: Tradition and Transformation......Page 266 Suggestions for Further Reading......Page 274 About the Author......Page 308 Index......Page 310