When University of Utah President Michael Young welcomed the audience to the university's annual Hinckley lecture, he began with an anecdote about the day Vincent Pecora met the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although there have been two previous Hinckley lectures at the U., Pecora is the first person to actually hold the endowed chair, as the Gordon B. Hinckley Professor of British Literature and Culture.
Young said President Hinckley carried a book in his hand when he met Pecora last November. It was a Greek textbook, a memento from his own days at the U. President Hinckley read from the book and talked fondly of his Greek professor and fellow students.
Young said he realized then why Pecora was a perfect choice for this professorship. Sponsors want scholars who reflect the philosophy of the man the endowment is named for, scholars who talk about values and cultural differences in a measured and respectful way.
Pecora's Hinckley lecture was titled "Religion and Culture: Secularism and Its Discontents." He quoted T.S. Eliot, who said culture and religion are inextricably bound.
At one point, Pecora described himself as a secular person. Still, he does not necessarily believe the spread of secularism is inevitable. What is secular government, after all? He quoted scholars of other faiths who see Western civilization as much more Christian than Westerners see it.
Pecora asked questions. He asked where the definition of "rights" comes from, in the United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "Did it just spring, fully formed, from the head of Zeus?" he asked. Or is it based on ancient Hebrew concepts of justice and on traditional Christian concepts of brotherly love? Is religion so much a part of our culture that we can't see what we call secular and universal is in fact religious?
Pecora questioned the Western idea of "nation-building." He seemed amazed that President Bush and Britain's Tony Blair could not foresee that Muslims would war among themselves in Iraq.
As he took questions after his lecture, Pecora was asked to talk more about the arguments of Talal Asad. Asad has compared the Western practice of circumcising males to the circumcising of females that goes on in some African and Arab countries. Both practices grew out of religion, Asad says, yet the United Nations has deemed the later a violation of human rights.
Pecora said he personally sees a huge difference, since female circumcision is designed to reduce sexual function. And yet, he said, Asad's argument is also convincing. He said these sorts of debates go on all over the world now, debates about secular truth versus religious truth. In the end, Pecora accepts this truth: "I don't come from Asad's tradition, and he doesn't come from mine."
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