In late June, as the United States descended into a high-combustion immigration debate marked by a degree of rancor extraordinary even for an era characterized by discord, an alternate universe quietly unfolded in which cultural-political rivals of goodwill came together to discuss an equally contentious issue: the tension between religious freedom and LGBT rights. Resuscitating such old-school notions as common ground and fairness for all, the fifth Religious Freedom Annual Review, hosted by the Brigham Young University International Center for Law and Religion Studies in Provo, Utah, gathered legal scholars, LGBT advocates, journalists, and concerned Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders to grapple over court cases, questions about higher education and journalistic fairness, and — surprise! — common feelings of vulnerability.
“This is not a kumbaya attempt to paper over differences, but an effort to understand what's at stake if we give up on the messy work of pluralism,” said William Pierce, a First Amendment advocate and senior director of APCO Worldwide, a public-affairs and communications-strategy consultancy. While the mostly professional and scholarly attendees gave the event the the look of a legal convention, a few clerical collars, kippahs, rainbow stickers, and headscarves attested to the viewpoint diversity that was most evident in panels and breakout sessions. Participants offered an unusual witness both that strongly held convictions — religious, cultural, political — are not going to disappear anytime soon and that they can be reasonably debated in measured arguments free of name-calling, shout-downs, and unfriending.
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