Panel: Values of believers, nonbelievers both have place in policy

Published: 2005-01-19

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Religious organizations may or may not have a legitimate place in deciding public policy, but the values that they teach should be included in a way that recognizes nonbelievers also have worthy moral standards, according to panelists at a Jan. 18 forum in Washington on faith and politics. The panel discussion hosted by the Brookings Institution, its standing-room-only crowd and the new book around which the discussion was framed by themselves prove "the religious right has won its fight with secular fundamentalism," said the Rev. Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. The attention to the role of religion in politics during the recent election cycle and the many news stories that focused on exit polls showing voters considered "moral values" the most important factor in their choice for president show that religious values are assured of a role in civic society, he said. Rev. Land echoed author Stephen L. Carter's observation that the "systematic effort to disqualify religiously informed beliefs from the public policy debate is now over." In his new book, "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It," the Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine and founder of the Call to Renewal anti-poverty movement, argues that it is time for the religious values of a broader cross section of Americans to have a role in the public sphere. His book begins with the observation that "many of us feel that our faith has been stolen, and it's time to take it back."

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