I've been aware of Stephen Carter for years, beginning with his "Culture of Disbelief." I bought that and another of his books ("Integrity") a year or two later. Hes a very incisive thinker, with the same measure of intellect and scholarly discipline that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle exhibited in that great old video. Reading Carter helped me realize that morality and legality will never be congruent. Nor should they be. Both are indispensable tools for living, serving very different objectives.
Here's a link to my old blog with a great quote from Carter. http://hootsbuddy.blogspot.com/2005/12/arabian-bloggers-defense-of-censorship.html
The outlinks there are no longer active, but I copied this part in case that might happen.
>> When the Supreme Court of the United States, ostensibly the final refuge of religious freedom, struck down a Connecticut statute requiring employers to make efforts to allow their employees to observe the sabbath, one Justice observed that the sabbath should not be singled out because all employees would like to have "the right to select the day of the week in which to refrain from labor." Sounds good, except that, as one scholar noted, "It would come as some surprise to a devout Jew to find that he has 'selected the day of the week in which to refrain from labor,' since the Jewish people have been under the impression for some 3,000 years that this choice was made by God." If the Sabbath is just another day off, then religious choice is essentially arbitrary and unimportant, so if one sabbath day is inconvenient, the religiously devout employee can just choose another. <<
5 comments:
Thank you for the nice compliment. Best wishes. S
Steve,
You're welcome!
Michael
I've been aware of Stephen Carter for years, beginning with his "Culture of Disbelief." I bought that and another of his books ("Integrity") a year or two later. Hes a very incisive thinker, with the same measure of intellect and scholarly discipline that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle exhibited in that great old video. Reading Carter helped me realize that morality and legality will never be congruent. Nor should they be. Both are indispensable tools for living, serving very different objectives.
Two good catches, Michael.
Here's a link to my old blog with a great quote from Carter.
http://hootsbuddy.blogspot.com/2005/12/arabian-bloggers-defense-of-censorship.html
The outlinks there are no longer active, but I copied this part in case that might happen.
>> When the Supreme Court of the United States, ostensibly the final refuge of religious freedom, struck down a Connecticut statute requiring employers to make efforts to allow their employees to observe the sabbath, one Justice observed that the sabbath should not be singled out because all employees would like to have "the right to select the day of the week in which to refrain from labor." Sounds good, except that, as one scholar noted, "It would come as some surprise to a devout Jew to find that he has 'selected the day of the week in which to refrain from labor,' since the Jewish people have been under the impression for some 3,000 years that this choice was made by God." If the Sabbath is just another day off, then religious choice is essentially arbitrary and unimportant, so if one sabbath day is inconvenient, the religiously devout employee can just choose another. <<
John,
I'm a long-time fan of Stephen Carter. He is always worth reading.
Thanks for the link!
Michael
Post a Comment