Shaun Kenney | Politics and Religion in Virginia's Public Square


Monday, November 17, 2003 Scholar Warns of Attempts to Privatize Religion This is pure gold: Norway's former Minister for Foreign Affairs warned against the tendency in Europe to consider religion as a private matter, much like a hobby. The former Norwegian Minister and current professor of political science of Oslo University explained that religion and politics are two independent spheres that have a common field: the concept of the human being. According to Matlary, there is a "profound conviction that if something is true and good, we must mobilize citizens so that it will become a general norm for all. If something is right and true, it is so in general, it isn't so just for Christians. It is not a question of creating Christian states, but rather states based on the truth of the human being." For this Catholic professor, the primary task of Christians in the political sphere is that of "establishing the nature of politics and of laws." "The first step," she said, "is to reintroduce logical reasoning: the language of universals, the language of morality, stemming from the truth of things. Is something good or bad? Here, the natural law is the only possible way. Normative questions cannot be established by the vote of majorities, rather, they are good or bad in themselves." Absolutely correct. If we are to have a truly just society, Christians in particular should be very forward about notions of absolutes when concerning lawmaking, and about promoting truth and goodness in our government. That's why Christians of all stripes should resist any effort to remove religious men and women from the public life and start making our presence felt in the public square. posted by Shaun Kenney \| 11/17/2003 11:43:00 PM \| 0 comments 0 Comments: Post a Comment Home
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