Prophets and Kings

God’s Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in Politics, by Stephen L. Carter (Basic, 288 pp., $26)

STEPHEN Carter used to irritate conservatives. In the early 1990s, Carter, a black professor at Yale Law School, wrote Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby, in which he admitted that his status as an affirmative-action hire meant that others would always doubt his abilities as a professional, that he would be the object of resentment by those who did not qualify for affirmative-action programs, and that he would always know that such doubts and resentment were, at least partly, justified. Since this case had been advanced and refined for decades by conservatives, Carter proved his colors as a liberal by criticizing (and often caricaturing) the conservatives who had blazed the trail for him. His second book, The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion, again addressed a controversial topic—the exclusion of religion from public life—with arguments developed by conservatives, but Carter was again at pains to distance himself from those on “the Christian Right”: He took an entire chapter to accuse Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition of engaging in “Religious Fascism.” This triangulation strategy avant la lettre worked perfectly—President Clinton, early in his first term, would often mention the book in speeches.

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Daniel P. Moloney

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God’s Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in Politics, by Stephen L. Carter (Basic, 288 pp., $26)

STEPHEN Carter used to irritate conservatives. In the early 1990s, Carter, a black professor at Yale Law School, wrote Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby, in which he admitted that his status as an affirmative-action hire meant that others would always doubt his abilities as a professional, that he would be the object of resentment by those who did not qualify for affirmative-action programs, and that he would always know that such doubts and resentment were, at least partly, justified. Since this case had been advanced and refined for decades by conservatives, Carter proved his colors as a liberal by criticizing (and often caricaturing) the conservatives who had blazed the trail for him. His second book, The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion, again addressed a controversial topic—the exclusion of religion from public life—with arguments developed by conservatives, but Carter was again at pains to distance himself from those on “the Christian Right”: He took an entire chapter to accuse Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition of engaging in “Religious Fascism.” This triangulation strategy avant la lettre worked perfectly—President Clinton, early in his first term, would often mention the book in speeches.