{"id":82251,"date":"2019-06-04T12:02:38","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T16:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=82251"},"modified":"2019-06-04T19:10:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T23:10:40","slug":"the-david-french-sohrab-ahmari-contretemps-i-1st-things-sohrab-ahmari-against-david-frenchism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=82251","title":{"rendered":"The David French–Sohrab Ahmari Contretemps (I)–(1st Things) Sohrab Ahmari: Against David–Frenchism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The more that conservative liberals like French insist on autonomy, the more they strengthen the bullies\u2019 position. This far with autonomy<\/em>, they insist, but no farther<\/em>. But why should the other side stop? Why shouldn\u2019t this new, aggressive vision of maximal autonomy not overtake the old?<\/p>\n

Here French and others fall back on religious liberty. French has done yeoman\u2019s work in defense of Christians and other people of faith persecuted in America. But in the long term, religious-liberty absolutism will put Christians and other traditional believers in a bind. If the moral law is merely a matter of ancient, if sincere, conviction, then of course it must give way to the demands for autonomy of people in the here and now.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Charles Chaput made this point in his 2017 book, Strangers in a Strange Land<\/a><\/em>. If traditional moral precepts are \u201cpurely religious beliefs,\u201d he wrote, then \u201cthey can\u2019t be rationally defended. And because they\u2019re rationally indefensible, they should be treated as a form of prejudice. Thus two thousand years of moral truth and religious principle become, by sleight of hand, a species of bias.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again and again, French insists on the sincerity of the believers whose causes he takes up, as if asserting sincerity of belief can move the heart of an enemy who finds you and your beliefs repulsive: \u201cThe biblical sexual ethic is based on a sincere conviction. . . .\u201d \u201cEvidence of devout faith is frequently evidence of a sincere commitment to fairness, compassion, and the faithful discharge of one\u2019s constitutional duties. . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

But they won\u2019t listen. Tub-thump long enough about your sincere but irrational (in the eyes of the reigning ideology) views, and soon opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage, polyamory, kids in drag, and much else of the same kind will come to resemble the wrongheaded and indeed irrational opposition to vaccination mounted by ultra-Orthodox Jews in New York. Sorry, Pastor French, but your superstition will have to give way to public health and the smooth functioning of the autonomy-maximizing society.<\/p>\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Conservatives should approach the culture war with realism.https:\/\/t.co\/vp8NKdP84N<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 First Things (@firstthingsmag) May 29, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n