Equality, Freedom, and Religion

February 13, 2012
4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. EST
Location: Berkley Center Third Floor Conference Room Map

Does the US government have the right to force religious schools and colleges to offer forms of birth-control in their employee healthcare plans which violate tenets of their morality? Should Christian couples in the United Kingdom be barred from fostering children if their religion forbids them to teach the moral acceptance of homosexual practice? All human rights are valuable and worthy of protection, and yet in recent years the right to put religious belief into practice has taken a backseat to the pursuit of other social priorities.

Philosopher and Religious Freedom Project scholar Roger Trigg addressed these important and controversial issues as he discussed his book Equality, Freedom, and Religion (2012), which raises the question of whether any freedom can be preserved for long if the basic human right to freedom of religious belief and practice is subordinated to other social concerns (particularly to the pursuit of equality). Responding to the book were William Galston, Brookings Institute scholar and former policy advisor to President Clinton, and Helen Alvaré, professor of law at George Mason University and regular commentator on issues of law and religion.

Discover similar content through these related topics and regions.

Related Religious Freedom

Image Gallery

1/1

Equality, Freedom, and Religion

Featured Participants

Roger Trigg Toggle

About Roger Trigg

Roger Trigg, of St Cross College, Oxford, is senior research fellow in the Ian Ramsey Centre, University of Oxford, and a member of Oxford's faculties of philosophy and of theology and religion. From 2007 to 2011 he served as co-principal investigator in an Oxford-based research project on the cognitive science of religion. He is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Warwick. Trigg has been president of the British Society for Philosophy of Religion and European Society for Philosophy of Religion; he also chaired the National Committee for Philosophy and its successor, the British Philosophical Association. Trigg was an associate scholar with the Berkley Center's Religious Freedom Project from 2011 through 2013. His recent publications include Morality Matters (2004), Religion in Public Life: Must Faith be Privatized? (2007), Equality, Freedom and Religion (2011), and Religious Diversity: Philosophical and Political Dimensions (2014); he is also the author of the 2010 Theos report “Free to Believe? Religious Freedom in a Liberal Society.”

Roger Trigg's Profile

Other Participants

Helen Alvaré Toggle

About Helen Alvaré

Helen M. Alvaré is a professor of law at the George Mason University's Antonin Scalia School of Law, where she researches and writes about the intersection of law with marriage, parenting, non-marital households, and the First Amendment religion clauses. She previously worked in the Office of General Counsel and the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Helen Alvaré's Profile

William A. Galston Toggle

About William A. Galston

William A. Galston holds the Ezra Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, where he serves as a Senior Fellow. He is also College Park Professor at the University of Maryland. Prior to January 2006 he was Saul Stern Professor at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, and founding director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). From 1993 until 1995 Galston served as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy.

William A. Galston's Profile