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Title: Religion in Politics: Constitutional & Moral Perspectives by Michael J. Perry ISBN: 0-19-513095-2 Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr on Demand Pub. Date: February, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: A Book That Could've Benefitted From a Bit More Thought.
Comment: This is a deeply felt issue by all viewpoints involved. As such, it has proved difficult for authors to write about in a coolheaded, professional way. Michael Perry (Wake Forest University) has done a good job. With clear, concise writing and a style unafraid of difficult subjects (abortion, homosexualism) he challenges everyone from secularist Richard Rorty to Pope John Paul II.
The book is divided into three sections. The first discusses the constitutional issues. What position is the government obliged to take on religious issues? To this, Perry answers: a neutral one. Government should neither support nor discriminate against religious ideas. The second section moves away from the first amendment to discuss whether it is moral for constuents to use religious arguments in public debate. Perry answers yes. All sides of an argument need to be represented and as long as the view expressed is relevant (i.e., it speaks sincerely to the issue) it should be put into the marketplace of ideas and discussed. Good so far. The last section talks about wheter it is then moral for a legislator to use and vote a certain way because of a religious argument. It is here that Perry's argument becomes inconsistent.
Here he answers that it is only moral for a legislator to use religious argument to decide issues if she can also reach the same conclusion by secular reasoning. One problem with this. This view (apart from being incongruous with Perry's above opinions) undermines the concept of a democratic republic. If Perry supports the constituents use of religious arguments and the representatives job is to represent her constituents, than if the majority of her constituents use a religious argument wouldn't it be moral for her to reflect her constituents wishes legislatively? Perry is inconsistent. What would the point be of saying yes to religious argument amongst constituents if the representative of the constituents can not use that religious argument unless supported by a corresponding secular one? This huge inconsistency made it hard for me to take the book as seriously as I might have.
The only other thing that bothered me was the use of endnotes instead of footnotes. The text is 106 pages followed by 51 pages of very thorough endnotes. Seeing as the endnotes added a lot to this book, it would've saved a lot of page-flipping had the notes been printed at the bottom of their respective pages. Nit-picky? A bit. Trust me, it will become a distraction.