The Culture War and the Sacred/Secular Divide: The Problem of Pluralism and Weak Hegemony

The culture war over the last several decades in North America appears to be a proxy between the conflict of the sacred and the secular. Yet, this perception ignores the complexity that actually exists. Advocates for competing sides have never denied a place for the other but affirmed the necessity of pluralism in American democracy. Rather, the conflict has been a contest over the language and limits of acceptable pluralism; over where and how and on what terms the boundaries of tolerable diversity would be drawn.