A Secular Society? by James Kalb

Progressives really do find anything that suggests the American or Western past an intolerable threat in need of instant suppression.

By James Kalb, Catholic World Report, August 2, 2020

James Kalb is a lawyer, independent scholar, and Catholic convert who lives in Brooklyn, New York. …

Modern Western governments claim they leave questions of ultimate meaning to the individual. That is the point of the Supreme Court’s claim that our public order is based on “the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” It also informs a common interpretation of Dignitatis Humanae, that it tells us that that government shouldn’t favor one religion over another.

That claim is convenient for governments, because it means they don’t have to explain and defend their ultimate goals. But it can’t possibly be right. Basic questions inevitably pop up everywhere, so government neutrality is impossible.  ….