OFF TO A SYMPOSIUM on Jeffrey Stout’s new book, Democracy and Tradition. Blogging may or may not continue over the next few hours, depending on whether I feel I can blog and pay attention or not.
In the meantime, Bill Whittle has an essay posted, which should ensure that you do not lack for reading matter.
UPDATE: Well, it seemed as if blogging would have been both distracting and discourteous, so I didn’t. I did take a picture (sans flash) though, as you can see.
Several readers want to know what I think. I’m not sure. I think Stout was definitely right in saying that efforts to remove talk of religion from public discourse, though largely the result of leftists, have in fact weakened the left morally, intellectually, and politically. (In fact, my Guardian column for tomorrow is not unrelated.) And his notion of a civil civic conversation in which people argue about such things is appealing to me.
I wonder, though, how it would play out in reality. Stout was very critical of talk radio, cable news channels, Time magazine, and the presidential and vice presidential candidates. There’s certainly plenty of room to criticize all of them — God knows, I do — but I think Stout’s case would have been stronger had he presented examples of good contemporary discussions. I also felt that his talk would have been easier to follow had he made clear why invocations of religion by Lincoln and Martin Luther King were good (as he seemed to think), while the singing of “God Bless America” by members of Congress on the Capitol steps after 9/11 was bad. Stout seemed to regard it as self-evidently bad, and many in the audience seemed to agree, but I think that point would have done better with more explanation.
Meanwhile, in response to the pre-update part of this post, reader Jenny DeMonte from the University of Michigan emails:
If you like Stout, consider Jonathan Zimmerman at NYU. He’s written a book that works in the same area, Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools. He argues that public schools have throughout history included teaching in morals and ethics that encompass many backgrounds, but religion is thornier. He also argues that America’s civic nationalism is moral and ethical, and because it is inclusive and usually tolerant, should supercede religious and ethnic moral systems. Hard to explain, but good to read.
After 9-11, Zimmerman wrote an interesting column for the NY Post. He had taught HS history, and at one point told students he would call on them to read essays they had written. He called on a female student, who declined to read. She said that because she was Muslim, she couldn’t read first, that she had to read only after a boy had read.
The question he asked is: how should he have responded as a public school teacher?
His answer: The girl reads first, because in the US our civic, national morality does not allow gender bias and discrimination. Girls and boys are equal in our public schools. What happens at home is not in the public domain, and therefore, the state doesn’t reach in and force the girl to recite first at home. But in a public school, she does.
Interesting, I think.
Yes, especially in light of the post, and photo, from InstaPundit’s Afghanistan correspondent, just above this one. It strikes me that Afghans are having precisely the kind of public conversation and engagement regarding religion and politics that Stout wants us to have, and with far higher stakes.