THE RELIGIOUS PROBLEM WITH RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. Why Foreign Policy Needs Political Theology

THE RELIGIOUS PROBLEM WITH RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Why Foreign Policy Needs Political Theology

THE RELIGIOUS PROBLEM WITH RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Why Foreign Policy Needs Political Theology

ARGUMENT Underlying rival versions of religious freedom are rival meanings of the religious and the secular. 1. Cases, the Canadian and American Offices of Religious Freedom 2. Religion, an essentially contested term 3. Why we need Political Theology 4. Political Theology and Principled Pluralism: Track 1.5 Diplomacy This means that doing any kind of foreign policy will necessarily require some kind of knowledge and practice of political theology.

CONTROVERSY: THE U.S. OFFICE religious engagement still operates on the pretense that all religions can be taken equally seriously. This masks the power relations involved: it will always be easier for the religion(s) of the majority, the religion of those who are in power, or the particular version of the religion supported by the state US-friendly groups are registered and protected as tolerant and orthodox Beth Hurd, 2013

THE CANADIAN OFFICE predatory Christian proselytization Arvind Sharma, McGill hegemony of religious freedom Beth Hurd Government Agent Externalize the will of the state Can exist without a state Can be changed the time has come to speak out against religious freedom Doug Saunders, The Globe and Mail

RELIGION & THE SECULAR: ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED TERMS Political Theology: the understandings and practices that political actors have about the meaning of and relationship between the religious and the secular, and what constitutes legitimate political authority

Rival Versions of the Religious and the Secular Political Theology: the understandings and practices that political actors have about the meaning of and relationship between the religious and the secular, and what constitutes legitimate political authority Rival Versions Laïcité fermé Understanding and practice of the religious Transcendent, privatized (freedom of conscience) Understanding and practice of the secular Neutral, rational, public, in principle its logic and social forms are accessible to all people Relationship between religious and secular Antagonistic, the secular must be safeguarded from the religious to preserve the political What constitutes legitimate political authority? Only secular politics are legitimate, limited democratic progress can be made in religious states, reproducing religion-free politics produces better changes of a rational peace. Religion should not be politically or publicly present. Laïcité ouverte Transcendent and private, but may be publically manifested Neutral, rational, public, in principle its logic and social forms are accessible to all people Antagonistic, the secular must be safeguarded from the religious to preserve the political Only secular politics are legitimate, limited democratic progress can be made in religious states, reproducing religion-free politics produces better changes of a rational peace. Religion should not be politically but may be publicly present. Inclusive Judeo- Christian secularis m Transcendent, but privatized and individualized concept of religion Neutral, rational, public, in principle its logic and social forms are accessible to all people Mutually constitutive, while the two are separate, the secular owes its origins to JC tradition. So far JC has best track record, but other traditions can and should also work to fold in democratic virtues. Limited democratic progress can be made apart from Judeo-Christian values at the basis of a political culture; best chance at peace is to replicate those values in a polity (whether via JC or others) Exclusive Judeo- Christian secularis m Transcendent, but privatized and individualized concept of religion Neutral, rational, public, in principle its logic and social forms are accessible to all people Mutually constitutive, while the two are separate, the secular owes its origins exclusively to JC tradition. Very negative, for example, on Islam as possible origin or incubator of such values. Limited democratic progress can be made apart from Judeo-Christian values at the basis of a political culture; JC missiology essential element for liberal democracy. The New Critics Principled Pluralism Fluid, discursive power defines religious Essentially contested Fluid, discursive power defines secular Mutual resonance, overlapping consensus (limited by constitutive values of liberal democracy ) Changing and relative, no ideal relationship, no trans-historical, transcultural meaning Principled pluralism: religious, like other kinds of reasoning, should be part of the rationale by which political actors come to agree on secular policy (mutual resonance). The state does not monopolize the logic by which actors arrive at consensus. Political legitimacy is necessarily local and individual, complicated large social and political projects or constitutions Legitimate political authority is constituted by secular principles that emerges in overlapping consensus from political actors, not by rationale by which actors arrive at them.

THE POLITICS OF PRINCIPLED PLURALISM: SIX HABITS FOR VIRTUOUS STATES 1. Restraint 2. Vigorous proselytization of strong public principles 3. Empathy 4. Dialogical political theology or mutual resonance 5. Receptivity and cooperation 6. Reasonable accommodation

TRACK 1.5 DIPLOMACY: SIX IDEAS FOR FOREIGN POLICY 1. Fundamental priority of FoRB 2. Building state/legal capacity & norm proselytization 3. Training and education of foreign service 4. Facilitating dialogical political theology 5. Cooperating with non-state religion, where possible 6. Reasonable accommodation, making peace with proximate pluralism