behind the curve

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Aug 01, 2005

Alan Wolfe is Professor of Political Science at Boston College (Chestnut Hill's Jesuit university) and director of the university's Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life. Here he displays his grasp of the religion to which his host institution once professed allegiance:

Offered as a non-biased solution to church-state conflicts, Feldman's proposal, like separation of church and state itself, is biased against some religions and in favor of others. It may make sense to allow symbolic displays of religion, but some religions are very symbolic while others are not. Catholics, for example, worship statues of saints, which conservative Protestants generally view as a form of idolatry.

To repeat a line of Patrick Madrid (in response to a querulous Evangelical): "We Catholics don't really worship statues anymore. We worship banners."