John Inazu, the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis, joined Roanoke College President Frank Shushok Jr. this week for a conversation about freedom, difference and civil society.
Inazu, who is also the founder of The Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship, and a Senior Fellow at Interfaith America and the Trinity Forum, visited Roanoke as part of the Henry H. Fowler Public Affairs Lecture Series.
Inazu was raised in a military family and attended Duke University on an ROTC scholarship. He studied engineering but said he didn’t love the subject. He found his real passion in law school, later working as an attorney at the Pentagon before becoming a law professor at Washington University.
In his conversation with Shushok, which took place on stage at Olin Theater, Inazu underscored the importance of empathy in understanding both sides of an argument, especially in complex and controversial cases where the First Amendment may be involved.
He addressed the state of civil discourse in the face of social and political animosity, and also delved into the role of higher education in fostering free speech and community. Inazu said many institutions today are trying to do too many things and lack a clear purpose, which means the values being instilled in students do not have a coherent purpose either.
“Social media has not helped many of us get better at complexity and nuance in our disagreements,” Inazu said. “Our online engagement encourages and really manipulates, through algorithms and advertisements and all kinds of things, to make us less nuanced, less critical, less patient and more divisive. Those kinds of activities are actively forming us into different people. And we are increasingly taking those habits and practices into an offline context, whether it's the family dinner table or colleagues at work.”
Before the evening concluded, Shushok asked Inazu about the future of democracy.
“Regardless of what happens in November, democracy does not end overnight,” Inazu said, “so jettison that from your rhetoric. Working to strengthen the institutions and elements of government that are designed to be checks and balances is an important part of us right now.”
“You don’t learn democratic virtues from a TED Talk,” he added. “You learn them by living them out and cultivating them in your daily lives.”
Inazu’s latest book, “Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect,” will be published by Zondervan this month.