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Marc Alexander, Catholic priest and co-chair of Hawaii's Future Today, and Mike Young, minister at the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu, sit across the ideological divide to discuss religion's proper role in public life. Alexander argues that the media label "religious right" is misapplied in Hawaii — where 70 percent of residents oppose same-sex marriage yet would not typically be called religious conservatives — and that his group's advocacy uses secular arguments, not scriptural ones, even on contested social questions such as gambling and prostitution. Young, self-described as a liberal, agrees that religious conservatives belong in the political process but insists that appeals to religious authority cannot serve as grounds for public policy, since they persuade only those who share the authority. A third panelist by phone, a former spokesman for the Coalition of Clergy who now broadcasts daily radio editorials, argues that social breakdown follows from replacing shared virtues with individual value systems. Callers press Alexander on whether wearing his clerical collar while lobbying contradicts his claim to act as a private citizen, and on the "Unholy 14" advertisement targeting senators who supported same-sex marriage. Roth notes he could not locate the Christian Coalition in local directories.
Transcript
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
