RELIGIONLAW Digest - 7 Jan 1998 to 8 Jan 1998

[Michael McConnell]

Marvin  Frandsen writes:
>
> You blame professors in California.  Out here its the radical
> right, who are usually fundamentalist Christians, which is arguably
> the oppposite pole of the professors.  Ironically,
> your insight that without freedom generally religious freedom
> may seem bizarre and wither as well is probably correct.
>
> Of course, the fundies out here think that would be fine, because
> then they'll do what they want to everybody else.

I have no interest in setting off a round of "so's your old
man," but I would be very interested to learn what the
religious right has been attempting in California with
respect to the limitation of other people's freedom. I am
interested because it has been my theory that the religious
right today is primarily in a defensive posture--that is,
fighting to prevent interference with their own freedom
(especially their freedom to control the moral upbringing
of their children). So I would like to learn the
counterexamples. (For these purposes, I do not include
attempts to influence the content of public education,
which is not so much an attempt to interfere with other
people's freedom as it is to protect their own interest
within a collectivized sphere.)

-- Michael McConnell (U of Utah)