Mario Coumo, in today's NYT, recommends a strategy for Bush on stem cell research:

To extricate himself from an untenable position, the president should start by following the successful pattern established in other areas of dealing with the clash of religious and political questions, including the law concerning abortion. The right of true believers to live by their own religious beliefs will be guaranteed: no one will be compelled to use stem cell research or its products, just as no one will ever be compelled to have an abortion. And the nation will respect the right of believers to advocate for changes in our civil law that correspond with their own view of morality.

But our pluralistic political system adopts rights that arise out of consensus, not the dictates of religious orthodoxy; and if such rights are adopted - approving abortions or financing stem cell research on leftover embryos - they will be the law of the land, even if religious dissenters, through their tax dollars, end up helping to pay for things that they find anathema. Every day Americans who abhor the death penalty, contraceptives, abortions and war are required to pay taxes used in part for purposes they consider offensive. That is part of the price we pay for this uniquely successful democracy.

Of course, this is a reasonable response. But it presupposes that Bush and the religious conservatives value a pluralistic political system. Unfortunately, they identify such systems with moral relativism, as does the Pope. Respect for a diversity of values and acknowledgement of nuanced moral distinctions are not part of their worldview, and unreflective religious articles of faith are considered equivalent to reflective moral conclusions. Coumo is properly suggesting that a wider consensus is important when deciding matters of public policy. But that reverses the order of things for the religious conservative, who insists that religious belief dictates morality, which then dictates public policy.

Not on Faith Alone | New York Times

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