Statement on Inclusive Law and Religion

Law and religion, as a field of inquiry within the legal academy, is often associated with a partisan religious agenda. The agenda is advanced under the guise of protecting religious freedom from interference by the state or other non-state actors. All too often though, the seemingly legitimate objective of advancing religious freedom is a cover for saying that one ought to have the right to criticise others in speech or to discriminate against others in actions on the basis of a purported immutable order that is established by a deity an order that cannot be challenged or questioned by humans. We regard the association of law and religion with such a partisan religious agenda as both unfair and unfortunate. Moreover, we reject the frequent equation of law and religion scholarship with the advancement of a partisan religious agenda. Although the advancement of such an agenda is part of the body of scholarship in this field, it does not by any means define it, and it most certainly does not cover that field. While some might use the study of law and religion instrumentally as a vehicle to advance a partisan religious agenda, we see it as capable of encompassing those who consider the interaction of law and religion as an intrinsically worthy object of study in its own right, absent the advancement of any partisan agenda. In other words, we see law and religion as inclusive, and this statement explains the approach we take to its study.