At Regent, scholars discuss religion in democracy

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At Regent, scholars discuss religion in democracy

By Steven G. Vegh, The Virginian-Pilot, February 3, 2007

VIRGINIA BEACH - Scholars at a Regent University symposium on Friday cited the Founding Fathers in asserting that American democracy and religion are indivisible, regardless of the public debate around mixing religion and politics.

"God-talk, at least as much as rights-talk, is the way America speaks," said Jean Bethke Elshtain, a political philosopher at the University of Chicago. "American politics is unintelligible if severed from Americans' religions, most importantly Christianity."

The second annual Ronald Reagan Symposium hosted eight academics and writers who spoke on the future of religion in American politics.

Daniel L. Dreisbach of Princeton University said that famous speeches by George Washington emphasized religion's innate role in the American form of government.

"He seems to be coming pretty close to saying, if you're laboring to undermine the public role of religion, you can't call yourself a patriot - indeed, you may be a traitor," Dreisbach said.

Dreisbach also said that while the Founding Fathers ranged from orthodox Christians to skeptics of Christianity, all viewed religion as essential "to inform public ethics, to guide the consciences of ordinary citizens and leaders."

Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute said that even Thomas Jefferson saw Christianity as "peculiarly the religion of freedom and the support of republican government," even though Jefferson's own belief was "on the fringe" of Christianity.

The symposium drew a mixed crowd of Regent students and visitors.

Those visitors included people such as Bill Young, a retired Marine and businessman from Virginia Beach.

"We do not need a state religion, but we need religion to be in the state," he said. "Each form of religion has to participate, and that's the secret to, you know, a real democratic society."

John Gilmore, a retired minister who drove from Milford, Del., to attend the symposium, said he had typically separated politics from religion.

However, after listening to the panelists, he said: "This has affirmed that it's OK - there is a place for religion in the public sphere, and that's adding to the richness of our democracy."

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