Do Religious Conservatives Exclude Skeptical Conservatives?
Heather MacDonald, a solidly conservative thinker and writer with impeccable credentials, writes in The American Conservative Magazine about what she sees as a tendency by religious conservatives to exclude “skeptical conservatives,” who “find themselves mystified by the religiosity of the rhetoric that seems to define so much of conservatism today.”
Skeptical conservatives—one of the Right’s less celebrated subcultures—are conservatives because of their skepticism, not in spite of it. They ground their ideas in rational thinking and (nonreligious) moral argument. And the conservative movement is crippling itself by leaning too heavily on religion to the exclusion of these temperamentally compatible allies.
It’s an interesting piece, and quite relevant to this blog’s purpose: To explore the role of religion in national (epecially presidential) politics. Although I disagree with many aspects of MacDonald’s worldview, I do think she has a point: If the GOP is going to have a big enough tent to accomplish its policy goals, we all need to get along, perhaps compromising on issues while standing fast on principle. That’s not an easy challenge to meet, but it’s not a new one either.
[tags]Heather MacDonald, skeptics, conservative movement, religious conservatives, skeptical conservatives, The American Conservative, big tent[/tags]
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