Calling the current state of debate a "stalemate", the Center for American Progress hosted an event Tuesday on "The Question of Conscience". CAP's panel – which included Melissa Rogers and Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite – discussed the application of controversial policies like the one President Bush implemented in the last weeks of his administration, requiring states to offer strong protections to health care workers who object to providing some services on religious grounds.
Definitions of “conscience” vary. Holly Fernandez Lynch encouraged a broad definition based on normative judgments about what people should or should not do. Willie Parker’s definition was personal: conscience is his personal gyroscope, oriented to what constitutes good.
“It’s the human capacity to tell right from wrong,” said Susan Thistlethwaite. “But what makes conscience so contested is it has so many emotional sources.” She said there was tremendous risk in assuming the infallibility of conscience and that “people of good conscience can disagree.” “The beauty of conscience is that we protect all of those understandings," said Rogers. "We recognize that people come to spiritual understandings in different ways.”
You can view video of the event here.
