Justin Taylor summarizes the manifesto on his blog and links to it. It sound like it will be an interesting document to read and one that I might even agree with (for the most part) if Taylor’s summary is accurate. I found this to be pretty helpful since I’ve been thinking along these lines recently:
2. They repudiate the two extremes defining the present culture wars in the US: (a) partisans of a sacred public square (those who would continue to give one religion a preferred place in public life); and (b) partisans of a naked public square (those who would make all religious expression inviolably private and keep the public square inviolably secular). In its place they are committed to a civil public square (a vision of public life in which citizens of all faiths are free to enter and engage the public square on the basis of their faith, but within a framework of what is agreed to be just and free for other faiths as well).
3. They are concerned that a generation of culture warring, reinforced by understandable reactions to religious extremism around the world, has created a powerful backlash against all religion in public life among many educated people. In its place they call on all citizens of goodwill and believers of all faiths and none to join them in working for a civil public square and the restoration of a tough-minded civility that is in the interests of all.They are concerned that globalization and the emerging global public square have no matching vision of how to live with our deepest differences on the global stage. Global communication magnifies the challenges of living with our deepest differences. They warn of two equal and opposite errors in the emerging global public square: (a) coercive secularism and (b) religious extremism. They also warn repudiate the positions of coercive religion (which leads to conflict) and relativism (which leads to complacency).
I think that since we are a post-Christian nation we need to keep in mind that we can’t impose our Christianity on others but we also cannot be driven from the square because we’re Christian.
I don’t have time to read it now, so I can’t really say if I agree with the document. I will read it after finals but by then it will probably be yesterday’s news and everyone will have moved on to something else. Oh well, I’m used to it 🙂