Religious Liberty and a Rhetoric of Reconciliation

By Jack Newman

There is nothing quite like a good controversy to unite people of common interest…especially if that means uniting against a perceived threat.

Or at least, such was my expectation when I attended Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs conference on religious freedom on March 1, during which the Center unveiled a newly published book (edited by Timothy Shah), Religious Freedom: Why Now? Defending an Embattled Human Right.

Attending an event like this was a dream for an undergraduate philosophy and politics student like me—and not only because I got to mingle with renowned scholars like Dr. Robert George of Princeton University, one of the preeminent conservative thinkers of our day in politics, philosophy and law. The topic of the conference, religious liberty, was absolutely bursting with relevance given the controversy over the recent Administration mandate requiring many employers to provide contraceptive and abortifacient coverage for their employees in spite of deeply held religious objections. Phrases in the book’s title, like “Why now?” and “An Embattled Human Right,” combined with the conference location at Georgetown, an eminent Catholic university, had me primed for an intellectual battle between religious academics and the current presidential administration. Popcorn in hand, I took my seat as a spectator, ready to watch the ensuing skirmish.

The war never came. In fact, those expecting a controversial debate over current events were treated to exactly the opposite—a reasonable defense of freedom for all world religions, and a gracious plea for civil discourse as we work out what that means in our political communities. A handful of snapshots from the day capture the atypical but exemplary tone set by this public conversation.
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