{"id":28562,"date":"2019-10-01T09:38:17","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T13:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/?p=28562"},"modified":"2021-10-04T13:17:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T17:17:00","slug":"the-revolution-or-the-counter-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/intersection\/2019\/10\/01\/the-revolution-or-the-counter-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"The Revolution or the Counter-Revolution?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a recent blogpost<\/a>, Professor Hans-Martien ten Napel responds to my observation that there is a legal revolution underway against the place of religion in Western societies. He offers a thoughtful review of my dissertation and raises some interesting questions regarding the European context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At Universiteit Leiden \/ Leiden University<\/a>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In my dissertation, The Legal Revolution Against the Accommodation of Religion: The Secular Age v the Sexular Age<\/em><\/a>, I contend that historical, philosophical and practical considerations led the West to protect religious practices in order to maintain civil peace; religious accommodation, in turn, paved the way for other fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Prof. ten Napel himself takes a similar position in his 2017 book, Constitutionalism, Democracy and Religious Freedom To be Fully Human<\/em>, where he explains that Christian presuppositions made liberal democracy possible. He argues that \u201cno legitimate liberal democracy is feasible without there being the type of protection of religious freedom offered by the right to freedom of religion or belief as it has historically developed\u201d (at p. 7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, we both agree that to deny\nreligious accommodation is to jeopardize the very health and functioning of\ndemocratic society \u2013 a serious prospect indeed! Yet, as I note in my\ndissertation, this is the revolutionary trajectory we are on. Even though the law\ngrants exemptions for religious groups, the legal community is in the process\nof rejecting the law as unjust. As societal norms have changed, particularly\nwith regards to sexuality, religion is no longer presumed to benefit society. The\nTrinity Western University law school case illustrates how a private religious\ninstitution\u2019s claim for religious accommodation is increasingly seen by the\nlegal community as seeking a \u201cright to discriminate\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his blog post, Prof. ten Napel concurs\nwith my \u201cstarting situation\u201d, where \u201creligion was considered valuable for\npolitics and society\u201d. He cites Tocqueville, who \u201cconsidered religion an\nimportant condition for the functioning of public institutions in a democracy.\u201d\nHowever, Prof. ten Napel\u2019s conclusion is somewhat bleaker than my own, in that\nhe believes \u201cthis revolution [against religion] has already taken place in\nAmerica\u201d and is now being met with a \u201cconservative counter-revolution\u201d. He\ncites Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet, who claims that the \u201cculture wars are\nover and [the left] won\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Prof. ten Napel, the question now\nis whether, and to what extent, my research applies to Europe. I look forward\nto hearing the results of his inquiry and any further dialogue on the\nrevolution against religious accommodation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent blogpost, Professor Hans-Martien ten Napel responds to my observation that there is a legal revolution underway against the place of religion in Western societies. He offers a thoughtful review of my dissertation and raises some interesting questions regarding the European context. In my dissertation, The Legal Revolution… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ts_fic_featured_image_caption":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-28562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28562"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=28562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}