Faith, hope, and government
Everyone knows the old saying that there are two subjects unfit for polite company: religion and politics. But both mixed peacefully during a panel discussion at the Newseum Institute in Washington, D.C. There was even a punch line: that public policies would benefit from understanding private faiths. “Religious freedom matters,” said Charles C. Haynes, M.T.S. ’75, director of the Newseum’s Religious Freedom Education Project, who introduced the Friday evening panel. Within sight of the U.S. Capitol — the American symbol lately of dysfunction and division — two Harvard deans faced off in a discussion titled “Religion and Politics in a World of Conflict.” In both arenas, they said, leadership is vital to maintaining a steady, open, middle path to resolving differences. “Peacemaking can sound like surrender,” said David N. Hempton, a historian of Protestant evangelical Christianity who is dean of the Harvard Divinity School (HDS). When conflict starts up, you need religious leaders...