Quotes from an article by Robert Kuttner.
What most differentiates America from the Islamist nations that we are trying to convert to Western-style democracy is that they are theocracies while we respect civil rights and religious pluralism. And if there is to be a clash of civilizations, let it be our pluralism versus their dogmatism, not a clash of dogmas. The last thing America needs, either in its domestic civic life or in its foreign policy, is a new Crusade.
“The state should be the beneficiary of prior moral convictions, not their benefactor or their origin.” (David Novak)
The treacly phrase “faith-based” diverts attention from the real debate about the proper nexus between government and religion, and evokes instead the faithful individual congregant.
But their’s an iron law of religious zealotry: Breach the church-state wall and a zealot whose beliefs are more dogmatic and dangerous than yours will seize the opening.