Table Of ContentA Culture of Engagement
Selected Titles from the Moral Traditions Series
David Cloutier, Kristin Heyer, Andrea Vicini, SJ, Series Editors
James F. Keenan, SJ, Founding Editor
The Acting Person and Christian Moral Evil
Moral Life Andrew Michael Flescher
Darlene Fozard Weaver
Overcoming Our Evil: Human
Aquinas on the Emotions: A Nature and Spiritual Exercises in
Religious Ethical Inquiry Xunzi and Augustine
Diana Fritz Cates Aaron Stalnaker
Catholic Moral Theology in the Prophetic and Public: The Social
United States: A History Witness of U.S. Catholicism
Charles E. Curran Kristin E. Heyer
Creative Conformity: The Feminist Reconsidering Intellectual
Politics of US Catholic and Iranian Disability: L’Arche, Medical Ethics,
Shi’i Women and Christian Friendship
Elizabeth M. Bucar Jason Reimer Greig
The Critical Calling: Reflections on The Sexual Person: Toward a
Moral Dilemmas since Vatican II Renewed Catholic Anthropology
Richard A. McCormick Todd A. Salzman and
Michael G. Lawler
Defending Probabilism: The Moral
Theology of Juan Caramuel Sex, Violence, and Justice:
Julia Fleming Contraception and the Catholic
Church
Family Ethics: Practices for
Aline H. Kalbian
Christians
Julie Hanlon Rubio The Social Mission of the US
Catholic Church: A Theological
Keeping Faith with Human Rights
Perspective
Linda Hogan
Charles E. Curran
Kinship across Borders: A Christian
Theological Bioethics:
Ethic of Immigration
Participation, Justice, and Change
Kristin E. Heyer
Lisa Sowle Cahill
Living the Truth: A Theory of Action
The Vice of Luxury: Economic
Klaus Demmer
Excess in a Consumer Age
Loyal Dissent: Memoir of a David Cloutier
Catholic Theologian
Charles E. Curran
A Culture of Engagement
Law, Religion, and Morality
Cathleen Kaveny
Georgetown University Press
Washington, DC
© 2016 Georgetown University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or me-
chanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kaveny, Cathleen, author.
A culture of engagement : law, religion, and morality / Cathleen Kaveny.
pages cm — (The moral traditions series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-62616-303-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-62616-302-7
(pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-62616-304-1 (ebook)
1. Christian ethics—United States. 2. Catholic Church—United States—
Doctrines. 3. Law—Moral and ethical aspects—United States. 4. Freedom of
religion—United States. 5. Culture conflict—United States. I. Title. II. Series:
Moral traditions series.
BJ1249.K367 2016
261'.1—dc23
2015025211
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library
Materials.
17 16 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 First printing
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design by Faceout Studio
Cover image by Lisette Poole/Bloomberg via Getty Images
To my brother and sisters
John Kaveny, Meg Kaveny, and Lee Kaveny
who taught me so much about what it means to
take care of people
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Life in the Crisscross 1
Part 1 Law as a Teacher 21
1 Rules Are Not Enough: Why Judges Need Empathy 25
2 Teacher or Remedy: What Is the Law for? 28
3 Letter versus Spirit: Why the Constitution Needs
Interpreting 31
4 Remember the Mormons: Thinking about the Nature of
Marriage 34
5 Regulating Abortion: What Did the Roberts Court Do? 37
6 Caught in the Gap: What Hostility to Health-Care Reform
Has Wrought 40
7 “Peaceful and Private”: Montana’s Supreme Court Rules on
Assisted Suicide 43
8 More Than a Refuge: Why Immigration Officials Should
Steer Clear of Churches 46
9 Justice or Vengeance: Is the Death Penalty Cruel and
Unusual? 49
10 Undue Process: The Evisceration of Habeas Corpus 52
11 Bad Evidence: Not only Is Torture Immoral, It Doesn’t
Work 55
12 Perverted Logic: Behind the Bush Administration’s “Torture
Memo” 58
13 Regret Is Not Enough: Why the President Should Read Paul
Ramsey 61
Part 2 Religious Liberty and Its Limits 65
14 The Right to Refuse: How Broad Should Conscience
Protections Be? 71
viii Contents
15 The Bishops and Religious Liberty: Are Catholics Becoming
a Sect? 75
16 Is the Government “Defining Religion”?: The Bishops’ Case
against the Mandate 82
17 Defining Exemptions Does Not Equal Defining Religion:
A Category Mistake 85
18 An Evolving Accommodation: Religious Minorities and the
Common Good 89
19 Employment Division v. Smith: The Eye of the Storm 95
20 Smith, RFRA, and the Bishops’ Claims: Neutral Laws of
General Applicability? 100
21 The Key Supreme Court Case for the Mandate:
U.S. v. Lee 104
22 Reading the Tea Leaves: Why the Supreme Court Is Unlikely
to Block the Contraception Mandate 110
23 A Minefield: The Troubling Implications of the Hobby
Lobby Decision 113
Part 3 Conversations about Culture 119
24 Watch Your Mouth: Sage Advice from St. James 127
25 Model Atheist: Jeffrey Stout and the Culture Wars 130
26 Bishops and Politics: Lessons from Australia 133
27 Moving beyond the Culture Wars: Why a Bioethics
Council Needs Diversity 136
28 A Flawed Analogy: Prochoice Politicians and the
Third Reich 140
29 Sick Minds: What Can We Do to Prevent Another
Tucson? 143
30 Crime or Tragedy? Murder and Suicide at Villanova 146
31 Dignity and the End of Life: How Not to Talk about
Assisted Suicide 149
32 The Right Questions: Catholic Colleges and Pop
Culture 152
33 Either/Or? Catholicism Is More Complex 156
Contents ix
Part 4 Conversations about Belief 161
34 Family Feuds: What’s Keeping Catholics Apart? 167
35 The Martyrdom of John Roberts: Catholic Squabbling,
Then and Now 170
36 No Academic Question: Should the CTSA Seek
“Conservative” Views? 173
37 The “New” Feminism? John Paul II and the 1912
Encyclopedia 177
38 Catholic Kosher: Is the Ban on Contraception Just an
Identity Marker? 180
39 The Big Chill: Humanae Vitae Dissenters Need to Find
a Voice 183
40 How about NOT Firing Her?: Moral Norms and Catholic
School Teachers 186
41 Truth or Consequences: In Ireland, Straying Far from the
Mental Reservation 190
42 Unspeakable Sins: Why We Need to Talk about Them 194
43 A Darkening: Why a Church Scandal Does More Harm
Than the New Atheism 198
44 The Long Goodbye: Why Some Devout Catholics Are
Leaving the Church 201
45 That ‘70s Church: What It Got Right 204
Part 5 Cases and Controversies 209
46 The Consistent Ethic: An Ethic of “Life,” Not “Purity” 215
47 Contraception, Again: Where Can We Find
Compromise? 219
48 When Does Life Begin? Two Prolife Philosophers
Disagree 223
49 Why Prolife? It’s about People, Not Abstractions 226
50 The ACLU Takes on the Bishops: Tragedy Leads to a
Misguided Lawsuit 229
51 Co-Opted by Evil? Abortion and
Amnesty International 232
