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Essays on Decency, Law, and Pornography

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Essays on Decency, Law, and Pornography to his task. A literary critic and author of A plementary ethic needs legal support, “it Place at the Table, he writes neither as a his- may be supported—not for the sake of virtue torian, although he is a good one, nor from but for the sake of preserving the moral envi- within the gilded circle of professional the- ronment that liberty and property need.” ology. He has grown up in the age of funda- Compulsion, then, is necessary to maintain mentalist ascendancy; he has had an adult a free society. religious experience that caused him to join In Clor’s view, the trouble with today’s lib- the Episcopal Church, of which he is a eral political theory lies in the shift from knowledgeable and devout member; and, in Locke’s emphasis on the rule of law to a new addition to having read and understood the emphasis on personal autonomy. Liber- literature of fundamentalism, he writes read- tarians, including John Stuart Mill and able, at times even elegant, prose. Friedrich Hayek, radicalize the liberty prin- Bawer offers sophisticated theological and ciple. They assume—wrongly, in the cultural portraits of Pat Robertson, James author’s view—that morals legislation is Dobson, and other Christian Right leaders, unnecessary because individuals exercise as well as their less-known allies and prede- their freedom wisely. Meanwhile liberal the- cessors. In a distinction that at times orists, including Ronald Dworkin, John becomes too simplistic, he contrasts their Rawls, and Stephen Macedo, radicalize the exclusive fundamentalism (“The Church of equality principle. While the libertarians Law”) with inclusive liberal Christianity take good character for granted, the egalitar- (“The Church of Love”). At a time when ians find the very idea of good character nearly everybody regards “liberal” as an epi- paternalistic and obnoxious. Laws curbing thet, Bawer lauds liberal Christianity as the prostitution and pornography, for example, essence of the Gospel, the kind of religion “affirm that some ways of life are worse than that Jesus would both recognize and practice others,” so they violate the Dworkinian prin- because he preached it. This is a passionate, ciple that citizens have a right to be treated articulate, timely, and utterly useful book. “with equal concern and respect” by their —Peter J. Gomes government. Clor fits feminist theory into its egalitarian PUBLIC MORALITY AND context. Feminists object to pornography LIBERAL SOCIETY: because it shows men using women as Essays on Decency, Law, and objects; it “sexualizes inequality,” in Pornography. Catharine MacKinnon’s phrase. When fem- By Harry M. Clor. Univ. of Notre Dame inists set out to censor, as in an ordinance Press. 235 pp. $32.95 passed by the Indianapolis City Council in It seems positively indecent to speak of 1984, they depict pornography as discrimi- indecency these days. Saying that a snuff nation against women. If explicit materials, film or a rap lyric offends public morality no matter how violent or debased, were to offends the civil libertarian in us, an overde- treat both sexes equally, feminists would be veloped part of our collective personality. In untroubled. To Clor, pornography does this tightly reasoned book, Clor reminds us indeed degrade women—but it also that we still have a public morality and, degrades everyone it depicts and everyone what’s more, that it is compatible with a free who watches. It is harmful because it objec- society. tifies human sexuality, not because it objec- The author, a professor of political sci- tifies one gender and not the other. ence at Kenyon College, argues that our Supreme Court jurisprudence on obscen- moral codes are rooted in religion, but only ity has largely respected community stan- in part. Habits of restraint come from two dards of decency while exempting from cen- other sources, both of which influenced the sorship serious works of art and literature. American Founders: John Locke’s liberalism The Court, however, is increasingly influ- and the writings of the ancient thinkers enced by contemporary liberal theorists. about civic virtue and republican self-gov- The author’s mild tone never wavers, but the ernment. Protecting life, liberty, and proper- import of his argument is that public moral- ty depends on many things, including “sup- ity hangs by the threads of Justice Souter’s plementary ethical attitudes and restraints black robe. Thin threads indeed. among the public at large.” Where that sup- —Lauren Weiner Books 109.
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