Abstract

The paper aims at offering a defense of a liberal view of pluralism that gives adequate space to religious conservatives. The view that the liberal state has to use its power to transform religions to become the handmaidens of liberalism is criticized. The paper shows that many religious conservatives do not accept (and have good reasons for not accepting) many of the main tenets of liberalism in the Rawlsian tradition, especially the value of individual autonomy and the idea that religion should be thought in terms of the liberal conception of justice. Tax policy is discussed as a domain in which the demands of the liberal state to conservative religious groups have to be restricted.