Conference, Symposium, and Panel Reports

Religious Americans and
Political Choices

The Journal of Law and Religion held its 2006 Law, Religion, and Ethics
symposium, “Religious Americans and Political Choices,” at Hamline Uni-
versity. The event focused on reframing the divide between the so-called
religious “Red State” and secular “Blue State” political discourses. Its objec-
tive was to discover what the major American faith traditions share by way
of political values and understandings about the critical issues facing the
United States, particularly in the areas of race, poverty, environmental pro-
tection, and restorative justice.

Keynoter David Gushee (Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy, Union
University) began with an “insider’s critique” of how evangelicals have
allowed political conservatives to capture their commitments on issues that
do not fully reflect their broad priorities as Christians. He argued that evan-
gelical Christians should cast a wary eye on politico-religious alignments in
accord with their basic principles. Evangelicals, Gushee noted, believe that
God is redeeming the world on His own time and that a Christian’s first loy-
alty must be to Jesus Christ as Lord, not parties, and teaching the Good News
as well as loving God and one’s neighbor. This evangelical commitment
entails the recognition that political activity cannot redeem the world; but
because the world is an arena of moral concern, politics is a necessary (if sin-
ful) part of life. Thus, Christians must seek peace and prosperity for the entire
human community, with a consistent ethic of life that embraces those mem-
bers of the wider world community who have been marginalized. 

In the panel on race and poverty, David Skeel (professor of law, Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania), an evangelical Christian, continued this theme by dis-
cussing the important role that evangelicals and other Christians have played
in pursuing debt relief for Africa, despite their traditional suspicion of big
government. He called for religious Christians to identify the “moral blind
spots of our age” and demand that political leaders recognize the equal
worth of every human being, both at home and abroad. 



Jose Roberto Juarez (dean, University of Denver Law School), Jace
Weaver (theologian, University of Georgia), and Ahmed Souaiaia (professor
of religion, University of Iowa) spoke on the political dilemmas of Latino,
American Indian, and Muslim peoples in the United States. Juarez noted that
Latinos have been taken for granted by political leaders and, working from
their religious faith, must put themselves in the place of those on the margins
and align their political commitments accordingly. Telling many stories of
American oppression of Native peoples, Weaver concluded that it has been
hard for Native peoples to bring their holistic, relational values, which stress
generosity and belonging, to bear on American political life. Souaiaia spoke
on the critical contribution that Islam, due to its focus on the inevitability of
pluralism that is coupled with an understanding of each human being’s equal-
ity and relatedness, could make to American politics.

Shelley Ross Saxer (professor of law, Pepperdine University), Mark
Berkson (professor of religion, Hamline University) and Betty Mensch (pro-
fessor of law, SUNY-Buffalo) looked at critical emphases in Christian and
Buddhist thought between the relationship of human well-being and political
commitments to protect the environment. Saxer described the Christian
concept of stewardship over creation and how it might be used to create envi-
ronmental law that protects Earth. Berkson dispelled common myths about
Buddhism’s views of the interconnectedness of life and mentioned how
Buddhist views might be distinguished from Christian, Jewish, and other
concepts of stewardship. Mensch explored how such historical religious
movements as millennialism have surprisingly influenced the United States’
environmental policy. Mensch’s and Berkson’s work, along with Gushee’s
address, is scheduled to be published in the journal. 

Finally, Howard Zehr (co-director and professor, Center for Justice and
Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University), Howard J. Vogel (professor
of law, Hamline University), and Thomas W. Porter, Jr., (executive director,
Just Peace Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation), analyzed the
prospects for religious people to find common ground around the restorative
justice movement. Zehr described how restorative justice responds to crime
and other social ills by recognizing the interconnectedness of human life, the
necessity of human accountability for wrongdoing that harms others, and the
importance of humility and respect in dealings with others. He also noted
that violence is most often an effort to do justice or undo injustice because
of the violator’s belief that he or she has been victimized. Restorative justice
creates the prospect that dialogue can open people to the reality that we are
all wounded and understand how we can live together, given the realities of
human conflict. 

Conference, Symposium, and Panel Reports 157



Vogel continued this theme, describing how such dialogue must be dis-
ciplined, exploratory, engaged with the other, and careful to pass judgments.
He presented the Dakota tribe’s quest to protect sacred lands and burial sites
against modern urban encroachments. Porter described how the Christian
communion table can be used as a location for the joining of conflict and the
building of shalom among all peoples, the practice of forgiveness and recon-
ciliation with others. Summarist James W. Lewis (executive director, Louis-
ville Institute) noted the complexity of the political problems raised at the
conference and reminded the audience that religious traditions offer a rich
supply of complex resources to respond to them. He also suggested that
Christians and others do more than just offer religious warrants for their
beliefs – they must create a publicly accessible conversation that can begin
to bring both prophetic criticism and the religious emphasis on forgiveness
to this country’s major political problems. 

Marie A. Failinger
Professor of Law, Hamline University School of Law

Saint Paul, Minnesota

158 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24:3