Problems of Political Secularism: Broken Politics, Unkind Cultures

by Kenneth J. Long

Overview

America’s debates over secularism are not what they seem. Far from being primarily about religion and its place in politics, these battles over ill-defined secularism are now seen as a diversion in an escalating culture war caused by incapacitated government. Government’s failure to generate needed policies have made Americans angry and unkind: liberals becoming increasingly condescending while the right becomes more transparently racist. Politicians, unable to legislate, still need voters, and they succeed by swiftly changing “issues,” which are often coded as religious but are mostly about everyday matters.

Kenneth J. Long argues that public failure elicits personal vice. The liberal values of tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion are “virtues” of the condescending. The belief in science, a tool, is strange at best, and the disdain for the anti-scientific is likewise condescending. For the right, “Christian” is increasingly popular among those who are growing ever less religious and serves as cover for a racist white identity politics. Problems of Political Secularism: Broken Politics, Unkind Cultures illuminates the troublesome outcomes posed by “protecting” autonomy through restraint of representative government and by pitting constituency against constituency to “safeguard” faith from government and vice versa. People of goodwill, faithful and not, are needed to redirect our focus from the symptoms (cultural warfare) to the structural governmental causes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666948622
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/05/2024
Pages:	140
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Kenneth J. Long is political theorist and Professor of History and Political Science at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Introduction: No Religions Were Harmed in the Writing of this Book

Chapter 1: Barricades

Chapter 2: Damage

Chapter 3: Diversion

Conclusion: Peril and Promise

Editorial Reviews

Long attempts to get at the root cause of what ails not only current American politics but also contemporary American society more broadly. Why are Americans so frustrated, so unhappy, so angry? For Long, the root cause is the “political secularism” of the title, defined as “distancing from and/or containing religious belief and/or practice to protect against its ‘intrusions’ into other religions and governance, and, especially, vice versa—restraining government’s interference in religion” (p. 11). Long assigns culpability to political secularism in various ways. First, political secularism is a central element of a system that denies the people real political representation and thwarts majority rule. Second, the absence of majority rule prevents the government from making effective public policy on the issues that matter most. Third, their inability to solve pressing problems forces politicians to focus instead on themes that serve only to inflame partisan and ideological conflict. This book is an interesting read in these highly fraught times. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews

“Problems of Political Secularism is a powerful engagement with the condescension that inheres in Liberalism's regard for religiosity with tolerance and religion’s complicity with racism in the United States. In pursuing a path of separation between Church and State, political secularism has produced the unintended consequences of effacing faith in improving life through political action, and weakening bonds of love, community and common identity that are bulwarks against cultural conflicts and incipient totalitarianism. This study is the culmination of Kenneth Long’s important, now three volumes, interrogation of the violence and progressive potential of American religiosity. It is a significant contribution to the literatures of political theory, political theology, and American political culture.”

Christopher C. Robinson

In this provocative book Prof. Long gives honest and balanced appraisals of the two ideologies on either side of America’s increasingly polarized society. He shows how a dysfunctional political system lies at the roots of this polarization. Prevented from carrying out the will of the majority, politicians instead seek to identify and exploit differences in cultural values that might help them win votes. Rather than blaming religion for this growing polarization, Long notes that, traditionally, religious congregations were communities that encouraged kindness to others through their narratives and activities. But as society has become increasingly individualistic, organized religions no longer have the positive impact they once did. Religious (or non-religious) identity has instead become a way for many to signal their position in this culture war. This timely book is a valuable contribution to scholarship that is also accessible to the non-specialist.”

Torsten Löfstedt