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For many, vision is deeply connected to faith. After all, every major American social movement of the last century— from woman suffrage to civil rights—has been buttressed by religious rhetoric. Such talk scares religious skeptics such as Sam Harris and John Rawls, who would seek a public square where "public reason" excludes faithbased moral deliberation. That logic works in some contexts, but try convincing my grandmother. She, like many Americans, cannot separate her faith from her identity as a citizen, neighbor, or community volunteer. That is why, in a nutshell, Hicks finds Rawls' vision untenable. How can people be motivated to participate in public life if they are required to cast off their constitutive identities to do so?
To complicate matters, society's growing multiculturalism provides additional touchstones for identity-based conflicts, making public leadership even more challenging. That is why Hicks' volume arrives at the right cultural moment. We must redouble our efforts toward greater religious literacy and humility. Only by connecting people at religious crossroads (while avoiding a lowest-common- denominator approach) will leaders in the 21st century be able to draw upon the resources afforded by faith traditions while avoiding the divisive perils that accompany deeply held beliefs.
While religion offers some unique ways of framing cultural vision and of animating personal identity, it can create political quagmires. Just ask Gene Nichol, onetime president of William and Mary, who resigned after three years on the job. Unlike college presidents who have left office over controversies regarding athletics or faculty, Nichol was tripped up by a religious issue. The president stepped on an institutional land mine when he changed William and Mary's policy of displaying a cross on the altar of the university chapel. Though a public institution, William and Mary had enjoyed a tradition of displaying the cross in the college's historic Wren Building. So when the university's 26th president announced to the campus community that the cross would be immediately removed and displayed only during Christian religious services or upon request, thousands of alumni voiced their disapproval. In the end, a prominent alumnus revoked a major financial pledge to the college, and after a few other missteps, President Nichol stepped down.
With God on All Sides reminds leaders like Nichol that religious symbols are especially weighty. Headscarves signal deep allegiances. Holy books stand in for entire cosmologies. Symbolic-expressive acts, such as visiting a synagogue or participating in iftar meals during Ramadan, are important displays of public leadership. And—as Hicks argues—public leadership is too important to be left to politicians alone. Echoing Tocqueville's concern about the triumph of the majority, Hicks reminds us that we all must look out for the interests of smaller groups within the body politic.
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