Hugh Heclo Quotes
Whether we like it or not, religion and government policy are unavoidably linked.
Hugh Heclo, Political Scientist, “The Wall that Never Was,” The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2003
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This quotation is one of the first to make the critical observation that the only time that tolerance of a religion is necessary is when there is an established church and others that deviate from it. If there is no established church, as the Founding Fathers envisioned, there is no preeminent church to do the tolerating. All are equal. In practice, Protestant churches were proportionately dominant in early America and up through the 20th century. So most of the issue of tolerance problems in America were cultural. And there is still a minority of Christians who believe that America should be a Christian country and other religions should be “tolerated.” However, Clinton and most of the founders did not want to see even general Christianity established as the national religion even they it was the majority religion.
In some countries, although not theocracies, the religious establishment had an automatic right to sit in the parliament. In this particular case it was essentially only the majority church. Catholics had 1 seat and the various protestant denominations, Jews, and others had no automatic religious representation in the legislature.
Pen name: Jack Nipps
Hugh Heclo was born in Marion, Ohio. After receiving a Bachelor of Art's degree from George Washington University in 1965, he went on to receive an M.A. from Manchester University in 1967, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1970. Heclo was a Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University, in the United States from 1987 until retirement in 2014. He was previously a professor of government at Harvard University and George Washington University in the 1980s. He operated Ashcroft Farms, a Christmas tree farm outside Winchester, Virginia.
