Constitutional Commitments and Religious Identity

Abstract

This essay comments on Steve Shiffrin's The Religious Left and Church-State Relations. It contends, on the one hand, that Shiffrin has valuably brought to the fore various reasons why religious believers might resist close relations between church and state. On the other hand, it argues that no fundamental connection exists between the "religious Left" and a particular position on church-state relations and that religious liberals will not necessarily be more persuasive than secular liberals in arguing against positions espoused by religious conservatives.

Keywords: First Amendment, homeschooling, religious liberals