Publications

Category: Legal/Constitutional

Document Type: Transcript

Panelists Include:

Richard P. Nathan, Director, The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government and the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy

Robert Tuttle, Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School, Co-Director of the Legal Tracking Project for the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy

Paul Bather, Chief Financial Officer, One Church – One Family, and Representative of the 43rd Legislative District, Commonwealth of Kentucky

Feather Houstoun, Secretary of Public Welfare, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

David Wright, The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy

RICHARD NATHAN: I have a confession to make -- that doesn't even interest people. (Laughter.) My confession that I want to make is that this field that we're working in, religion in government, is not a field that I have studied in depth in my career. So, I don’t have the kind of grounding that you need to be really thoughtful about a subject like ours. And to my great advantage, I can read this book. It is out today, out today from the Brookings Institution, Faith in Politics, by the man I’m introducing, Jim Reichley, an old friend of mine, a very good friend of mine. This is a Brookings book that stretches the canvas on religion and politics in America, going back to the Establishment Clauses. The colonies, most of them, had established churches. A lot of things have happened in the history of this nation that involve religion and government, and religion and hot politics, and this book covers it all, way beyond the subject of our focus, but very much contextual to what I need to know. And I have a feeling that you know so much more than me that you don't need to know this. But if you're even a little bit guilty that, gee, maybe I need that historical sense, that deep historical sense, get a copy of Jim’s book. And it is just out, and in a press release; he told me it comes out today. Jim Reichley is a senior visiting fellow at Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. He served, as did somebody roughly his age, a friend and admirer did, as an assistant to Senator Kenneth B. Keating. Way back when Jim and I shared an office, his son, who is also running for office in Pennsylvania right now, was born when my son was born -- our firstborn, when Jim and I worked together. So, we have known each other for a very long time. That is not why he is here. He's here because he really knows this subject. He served as legislative secretary to Governor Bill Scranton in Pennsylvania. He was a political editor at Fortune magazine. He served in the Ford White House, and he has written extensively, prior Brookings book, other books, particularly on religion and politics in America. He has his master's degree in American history from Harvard University. While I am up here, and before Jim goes forward with this meeting, I want to just mention that he's going to introduce Bob, and Bob Tuttle will explain that Chip, unfortunately, is ill and we're all pulling for him. I'm sure he's going to be okay, but we miss him -- Chip Lupu. But we are going to have a national event here in Washington, March 6th and 7th -- mark it down in your calendar -- where we are going to have a longer full session on this subject we're about to take off, which is made more interesting by David Saperstein, and billing it as something you'd better listen hard to. And we also -- and I should mention this at the same time -- are going to be -- I might have gotten the dates wrong -- December 11th for the event with Bob and Chip, and March 6th and 7th, just because I want to mention it, is our joint research conference with the Independent Sector, the Roundtable and the Independent Sector also in Washington. So, you haven't heard the end of us even after today, and now you get to hear Jim Reichley introduce and moderate with Bob, Robert Tuttle, from George Washington University Law School.

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The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy
Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government

411 State Street, Albany, NY 12203.
Phone: (518) 443-5014 | Fax: (518) 443-5705
Copyright 2008