The Right to be Wrong:

Let me interrupt this marriage debate for a shameless book plug.

Seamus Hasson’s new book is called The Right to Be Wrong and it has gotten rave reviews from Michael Novak (not only “rollicking” but “wholly original”), also Mary Ann Glendon. I’ve read it. It’s a fascinating, quirky book that combines an intellectual history of the development of the idea of religious liberty in the U.S., with a new theory of where religious rights come from, plus some really amusing battle stories from Becket Fund war chest (My favorite is called “The Case of the Sacred Parking Barrier”. It is set in San Francisco. ‘nuff said.)

Hasson argues we can have “pluralism without relativism.” (Catholics will recognize the influence of JP2 here). Meanwhile U.S News.com is reporting (see http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/articles/051024/24whisplead.htm) that Mel Gibson is “back into the fray with his first-ever book endorsement: “Making The Passion of the Christ taught me many things. One was just how scared some Americans are of religion in public. The Right to Be Wrong explains why they are scared and why they don’t have to be.”

Seamus Hasson is founder of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty which is the only one public litigation firm I know of that defends the liberty of all faiths (From Anglicans to Zoroastrians, as Seamus likes to say).

He is also the only guy I know whose been invited to make religious liberty arguments on Al Jazeera. Twice. Anyone interest in “Ending the culture war over religion in America” (as the subtitle puts it) will want to check it out.