About
The purpose of Discovery Institute’s Program on Religion, Liberty, and Civic Life is to re-articulate for the twenty-first century the proper role faith should play in public life in a free society and to emphasize the importance of religious liberty, limited government, and the moral common ground shared by human beings that makes representative democracy possible.
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Religion has played a vital role in American civic life from its inception. During the Revolutionary War, ministers urged citizens to resist English tyranny. During the nineteenth century, evangelical reformers spearheaded efforts to teach reading and morality, eradicate slavery, and help people escape poverty. In the twentieth century, religious leaders were at the forefront of the civil rights movement.
In recent years, however, the public understanding of the role of religion in America’s constitutional system has become increasingly confused. There is a growing climate of hostility that demands an end to even voluntary expressions of religion in public and ridicules moral principles historically shared by Jews and Christians as subjective and outdated. In such an atmosphere, the temptation is great for defenders of a public role for religion to respond in kind, fostering political divisions along sectarian lines. There is a better way: Embracing the system of ordered liberty created by America’s Founders where people of faith can flourish in the public square by being the moral conscience of the nation and by shaping society primarily through voluntary action rather than government coercion.