The Right to Be Wrong: Ending the Culture War over Religion in America [Hardcover]

Kevin Seamus Hasson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2005

We call it the "culture war." It's a running feud over religious diversity that's liable to erupt at any time, in the midst of everything from judicial confirmations to school board meetings. One side demands that only their true religion be allowed in public; the other insists that no religions ever belong there. As the two sides slug it out, the stakes are rising. An ever-growing assortment of faiths insist on an ever-wider variety of truths. How can we possibly all live together and keep both the peace and our integrity (not to mention our sanity)? How can we end the war without surrendering our principles? THE RIGHT TO BE WRONG explains how. It skewers both extremes, which it dubs the "Pilgrims" and the "Park Rangers." Pilgrims get their name from the Plymouth Colony folk who banned Christmas just weeks after celebrating their first Thanksgiving. Pilgrims want to outlaw diversity by declaring their religion the official one. The truth, they say, licenses them to restrict others' freedom. The opposite extreme deals with diversity by trying to drive it underground, eliminating religious expression from public life altogether. The "Park Rangers" are named after the bureaucrats in a too-good-to-be-true story about New Agers, a public park and a certain sacred parking barrier. They say freedom requires them to banish other people's truths. THE RIGHT TO BE WRONG offers a solution that avoids both pitfalls. It draws its lessons from a series of stories —some old, others recent, some funny, others not. They tell of heroes and scoundrels, of riots, rabbis and reverends, Founders and flakes, from the colonial period to the present. The book concludes that freedom for all of us is guaranteed by the truth about each of us: Our common humanity entitles us to freedom — within broad limits — to follow what we believe to be true as our consciences say we must, even if our consciences are mistaken. Thus, we can respect others' freedom when we're sure they're wrong. In truth, they have the right to be wrong.

Editorial Reviews

Review

" . . . an engaging and forceful brief on behalf of free religious expression . . . sharp and witty . . . I find it persuasive." -- Diane Ravitch, NY Sun

"If you care about religion in America, please read this book." -- Mel Gibson

"an insiring account . . . Hasson writes engagingly about . . . legal wranglings over the First Amendment, and proposes a return to basic principles" -- National Review

"rollicking, surprising, wholly original . . . it flashes light on its subject as nothing else ever has." -- Michael Novak

About the Author

Kevin Seamus Hasson is the founder and chairman of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law firm that protects the free expression of all religious traditions. Hasson lives with his family in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 159 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594030839
• ISBN-13: 978-1594030833
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,026,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars James Madison, Meet Ernest Hemingway, October 24, 2005

By 

F. E. Guerra (San Juan, Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Right to Be Wrong: Ending the Culture War over Religion in America (Hardcover)

Imagine a cross between James Madison, one of our greatest Founding Fathers, and Ernest Hemingway, one of the great modern writers of the English language. If you cannot imagine this, then read this book, for the author writes like Hemingway, as if he were having a friendly conversation with you, but unlike most books about religion and politics, he puts forward political ideas that Madison would most likely approve of.

The author's thesis also has the advantage of being sensible and pragmatic: we should allow for more robust religious pluralism in our society. In many ways, this is precisely the same formula James Madison proposes for secular "factions" (i.e. interest groups).

In the Federalist Papers, Madison correctly notes that "factions" are dangerous, but his originality lies in arguing that we should have more factions, not less, because the more factions there are, the more difficult it is for any one faction to achieve dominance. This is, in effect, what the author proposes for 'religious factions', and I think it is a brilliant solution, a Madisonian solution.

In addition, the author provides a very readable history of religious intolerance on American soil. He gave me a much deeper perspective of the problem than I had before I read his book, and indirectly, he made it easier for me to understand the motives of religious fanatics in the present (especially the problem of intolerance in the Muslim world).

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Page Turner, December 29, 2005

By 

James T. Hill (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Right to Be Wrong: Ending the Culture War over Religion in America (Hardcover)

By far the best book I've read on religion in America. Hasson is delightfully witty as he skewers both extremes in the culture war. One extreme, "the pilgrims," are people of whatever faith (Muslims, Christians, etc,) who want their religion to the be the only official one. The other extreme, "the park rangers," want to drive all religion from public life. Hasson's solution is to welcome all faiths into the public square.

Hasson is, however, no relativist. He doesn't think that the various faiths that he'd welcome into public life are all somehow true. As he says in his introduction "on any given day, I think most of my clients are wrong. But I firmly believe that...they have the right to be wrong."

Throughout the book Hasson reflects on a series of stories, beginning with arguments aboard the Mayflower and ending with arguments on Al Jazeera. They are, at turns, funny, poignant and tragic, but they are all exceptionally well written. Who would have thought a book on religious liberties would be a page turner...but it is. Buy 2 copies--one for yourself and one for a confused friend.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Religious Liberty and the American Experiment, October 15, 2005

By 

Chris B. (Fair Haven, Connecticut USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Right to Be Wrong: Ending the Culture War over Religion in America (Hardcover)

In this highly readable book, preeminent constitutional lawyer and First-Amendment scholar Seamus Hasson provides a worthy tour of Church-State relations at law in America.

Mr. Hasson brings a wealth of real-life cases that read stranger than fiction, with such amusing examples as the parking-barrier worshippers, and, beyond the levity, brilliant analysis of one aspect of the culture wars.

The book poses provocative questions and points to some principles that may avert our impalement on the horns of dilemma, largely by providing a rare coherent take on the so-called religion clauses of the First Amendment of the Constitution.