View from the culture war’s front lines
Q: What about overall? If you had to say where things are at
today, in terms of church-state separation, compared to when you took over at
Americans United in 1992, where are they?
A: Overall things have advanced. I don’t believe this
administration’s negative view will prevail very long because it’s inconsistent
with what the American people want. They don’t believe government money should
go to promote religion. Their hearts and minds are far, far moved from where
they were 25 years ago…I think there is an enormous growth in tolerance…Once
you make a certain amount of progress, you never get back to the same starting
point. People have become more tolerant, more accepting.
It’s only a bad time because the Supreme Court looks to be
at genuine risk of falling into the hands of a majority of so-called
Originalists.
I do this sermon called ‘The Two
Worst Ways to Make Policy: Constitutional Originalism and Biblical Literalism.’
The Bible is a wonderful book, but it’s not an ethics
textbook, that’s not how it was created. And Constitutional Originalism depends
on the fiction that you can tell exactly what the first Congress meant when it
passed the Bill of Rights. Most of that is lost to history.
Q: But you came from a pretty conservative part of the
country [he grew up in Bethlehem, Pa.]
A: I remember in high school going to a debate between
Buckley and [Socialist leader] Norman Thomas. I thought: Man, this is going to
be fun! My Dad and I were big Buckley fans. I can still remember the feeling,
sitting in the bleachers, thinking: ‘I think something life changing is
happening’ to me. Buckley was talking about himself, and Thomas was talking
about community, and how you have to take into account concerns of everyone, and
I’m thinking: ‘This is kind of like what I learn about in Sunday school!’ Years
later I was with Buckley and I said: ‘Your failure that night created me.’
I
realized that night [that] this super-conservativism is just inconsistent with
moral principles. Because you can’t live a life that doesn’t touch everybody
else’s.
