Religion in Public Life

We are divided on the issue of whether government ought to be scrupulously secular and neutral, neither favoring nor disfavoring religion, or benevolently disposed toward religion, seeking to encourage the flourishing of all communities of faith. While we proclaim the theoretical separation of religious and political institutions, we often encourage their intermingling in practice. In the absence of either national consensus or coherent practice in these matters, public decision makers are left to their own devices in seeking to resolve the many dilemmas cast up by the presence of religion in the public sphere. Unfortunately, their decisions often represent conflicting and contradictory solutions to the problem of religion in American public life, thereby contributing to our current aporia. Consider the following examples drawn from three diverse public institutions. In each of these cases, different but equally problematic solutions are offered to the dilemma of religion in American public life.…