Civil religion and human rights in Canada

Abstract

One of the reasons why religious pluralism flourishes to the degree it does in Canada and the United States is because, as immigrants, we have inherited a cultural attitude of healthy skepticism toward what politics can achieve. We have a cultural inheritance of recognizing that religious persecution is frequently the result of attempts by political rulers to establish political uniformity with dubious and overreaching civic ideals. Wehave a cultural inheritance of recognizing that human happiness is better achieved within religious communities, through education, than in larger political communities where those ideals are enforced with the sword. In short, we have a cultural inheritance of recognizing the limits of state power and laws to promote public morality, which sustains a public understanding of the limits of what politics can achieve in promoting human happiness and virtue.