“The state’s appetite to find solutions from the center lures it to create positive rights out of thin air,” says Ismael Hernandez, president and founder of the Freedom and Virtue Institute, “even at the expense of a narrower space for civil society.”
The comprehensive nature of religious thought often tempts religious bodies to command society from the center. Their tendency is to suffuse the system with a holistic vision of reality because such vision is seen as true and good.
A social arrangement that frustrates the totalistic impulse is a challenge, as it is not apt for unitary visions. A free, pluralistic and open society asks of us to be present in the public square but restrain from commanding it; we must act as yeast in dough.
