"Many of our country’s greatest successes, including the
Constitution itself, exist because men and women were willing to
drop an all-or-nothing approach that championed self-righteousness
and certainty in favor of an approach defined by compromise and
mutual respect. Taking an all-or-nothing approach to difficult issues
weakens our ability to find inventive solutions to difficult moral and
legal problems. The nature of culture wars is such that they trick us
into believing we have only a binary choice—that we must “choose
a side.” Such a mentality could lead someone to believe, erroneously,
that proponents of laws protecting the religious rights of business
owners are motivated primarily by bigotry or that proponents of
non-discrimination ordinances lack any respect for people of religious
faith. Both views are mistaken. We can and must promote legislation
that acknowledges the nuanced nature of this issue."
I've been published! During this academic year, I've worked on an article for the BYU Pre-Law Review titled "Leaving Behind Self-Righteousness: Using Mutual Respect and Compromise to Solve Emerging Conflicts Between Religious Liberty and Same-Sex Marriage." Although there are many issues under discussion surrounding LGBT+ people and U.S. law (transgender bathroom use, employment protections, and so on), this article focuses on non-discrimination ordinances. In the article, I argue that both sides must come down from their extremes— RFRA laws that allow business owners to discriminate under any circumstance, and non-discrimination ordinances that allow no exceptions for people of religious faith— and work to find common ground. I firmly believe that over the past several decades, both LGBT+ rights advocates and religious people have acted with a self-righteousness and mean-spiritedness unbecoming of their noble causes.
Id you'd like to read the article, you can find it here. Many thanks to editors Michelle Beus and Katherine Hansen for their essential contributions.
I've been published! During this academic year, I've worked on an article for the BYU Pre-Law Review titled "Leaving Behind Self-Righteousness: Using Mutual Respect and Compromise to Solve Emerging Conflicts Between Religious Liberty and Same-Sex Marriage." Although there are many issues under discussion surrounding LGBT+ people and U.S. law (transgender bathroom use, employment protections, and so on), this article focuses on non-discrimination ordinances. In the article, I argue that both sides must come down from their extremes— RFRA laws that allow business owners to discriminate under any circumstance, and non-discrimination ordinances that allow no exceptions for people of religious faith— and work to find common ground. I firmly believe that over the past several decades, both LGBT+ rights advocates and religious people have acted with a self-righteousness and mean-spiritedness unbecoming of their noble causes.
Id you'd like to read the article, you can find it here. Many thanks to editors Michelle Beus and Katherine Hansen for their essential contributions.
Comments
Post a Comment