Forty years ago, the late Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, founding editor of First Things, published The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America. In that influential book, Neuhaus argued that our nation’s public discourse had been emptied of religion to such a degree that arguments motivated by — and perhaps even citing — religious belief were no longer welcome.
If only Neuhaus had lived to witness the comments of left-wing establishment elites such as Washington Post editorial board member Ruth Marcus or Politico reporter Heidi Przybyla. He’d learn that we no longer have a public square denuded of religious language, but one openly antagonistic toward even religious conservatives who make purely secular arguments.
Marcus Engages in Bigotry
In a Mar. 6 Washington Post op-ed, Marcus took aim at pro-life religious conservatives who argue for fetal personhood. Marcus observes that the movement in favor of defending unborn babies as persons “arose mostly out of Christian theology and beliefs about ensoulment.” However, Marcus acknowledges, this movement’s most articulate spokesmen, such as Princeton academic Robert P. George, present their position based on verifiable science, given that the organism created from the union of human sperm and human egg is a “genetically distinct entity,” and thus “entitled to legal and moral respect” (Marcus’ words). Indeed, Marcus is even willing to grant that there is a “certain intellectually consistent clarity” in George’s argument.
Yet, says Marcus, the fetal personhood movement is misguided and erroneous, but not on scientific or logical grounds. Rather, she claims,
