Another Curious ACLU Performance

[Jim Maule]

richard duncan <rduncan at UNLINFO.UNL.EDU> writes

> These issues go to the core of religious associations and individual
> religious freedom. And both of these issues are supported by extremely
> zealous advocates who believe they have a mission to impose their
> version of the truth and of morality on everyone else. There is
> nothing more intolerant than a true believer marching under the banner
> of "tolerance."

A point central to my "Better That 100 Witches Should Live" and that
annoyed all sorts of folks, probably because I don't see much of a
distinction between left and right, conservative and liberal,
traditional and progressive, when it comes to overt and covert
imposition of "version of the truth and of morality" on society. So
much for the utility of labels. Even the libertarians are criticized
(not by me) for trying to "impose" libertarianism. Oh, how blessed we
are for having lived through the "me generation."!

It is indeed distressing to read arguments cast in terms of labels
rather than reasoning. Somewhere, somehow we can do better. I suppose
the ultimate issue is "who's in charge?" or "who should be in
charge?" of [fill in the topic]. And the question is, "if there is no
way for the law to accommodate every 'religious belief' and practice,
where is the line drawn and by whom?"

I doubt there will ever be a unanimous or near-unanimous answer to
that one, and thus there will never be agreement on all the other
(subsidiary) issues. Can we tolerate that each of us holds a different
perspective and opinion?

Jim Maule
Professor of Law
Villanova University School of Law
Villanova, PA 19085
maule at law.vill.edu
http://www.cilp.org/~maule
(610) 519 - 7135

"government big enough to give you everything you want is also big
enough to take away from you everything you have"
    -- George Herbert Walker Bush