Religion & Law

Archbishop Charles Chaput's keynote address, given recently at the Berkley Center at Georgetown, called "Subject to the Governor of the Universe", is available here.  In my view, it's a must-read.  Here's a bit:

At the heart of the American model of public life is a Christian vision of man, government and God.  Now, I want to be clear about what I?m saying here -- and also what I?m not saying.

I?m not saying that America is a ?Christian nation.? Nearly 80 percent of our people self-describe as Christians. And many millions of them actively practice their faith. But we never have been and never will be a Christian confessional state.

I?m also not saying that our Protestant heritage is uniformly good. Some of the results clearly are good: America?s culture of personal opportunity; respect for the individual; a tradition of religious liberty and freedom of speech; and a reverence for the law. Other effects of Reformation theology have been less happy: radical individualism; revivalist

None of these sins however ? and yes, some of our nation?s sins have led to very bitter suffering both here and abroad -- takes away from the genius of the American model. This model has given us a free, open and non-sectarian society marked by an astonishing variety of cultural and religious expressions. But our system?s success does not result from the procedural mechanisms our Founders put in place. Our system works precisely because of the moral assumptions that undergird it. And those moral assumptions have a religious grounding.

There's a lot more.  Check it out.