Religion & Law

In my new book (remember, nothing says "Happy Spring!" to a loved one like a book exploring the relational dimension of conscience), I urge both sides in the conscience debate to spend less time trying to win the zero-sum legal battle over conscience, and more time building morally distinct venues for conscience in the marketplace.  As such, when I read that a pro-life pharmacy has failed to attract enough customer support to stay in business, I'm disappointed on a couple of levels: I'm sad that the moral claims of the pharmacy did not resonate enough within the pro-life community to achieve economic viability, and more selfishly, I'm protective of my thesis.  I still maintain that, if our society is serious about protecting conscience, it is infinitely preferable for a pro-life pharmacy to fail in the marketplace than to be prohibited by law.  It doesn't help, of course, when the market failure is met with a combination of glee and snark by observers.