Conservative Protestants are mentioned repeatedly in the ongoing conversation about social capital, individualism, and community in the United States. As John Wilson notes in his introduction, evangelicals are frequently discussed either as a threat to civil society or as apparent counterexamples to the prevailing view of American society's fragmentation. The essays in this volume take another look at the role of evangelicals in American civic life. The prominent contributors examine evangelicals' beliefs and activity on topics ranging from bioethics to race relations and welfare reform to...

As religiously grounded moral arguments have become ever more influential factors in the national debate-particularly reinforced by recent presidential elections and the creation of the faith-based initiative office in the White House-journalists' ignorance about theological convictions has often worked to distort the public discourse on important policy issues. Pope John Paul II's pronouncements on stem-cell research, the constitutional controversies regarding faith-based initiatives, the emerging participation of Muslims in American life-issues like these require political journalists in...

A growing international recognition and concern about the consequences of religious faith and its relationship to public policy is a centerpiece of daily discourse and global media coverage. This timely and important book presents a series of conversations steeped in a diversity of viewpoints about the nature, role, and impact of religiously grounded moral arguments.This book is published in cooperation with the Ethics and Public Policy Center.