Barry Blitt, for The New York Times

Martin Marty, frequent commenter on things publicly religious, wrote this week of “the decline of the culture wars.” His Sightings column was citing Frank Rich’s New York Times op-ed on the same subject.

This isn’t the first time people have tried to bring a stalemate to the “culture wars.” But I was reminded of the subject at President Obama’s press conference this week, in an exchange between President Obama and John Ward of the Washington Times. Ward asked the President about stem-cell research (from the Washington Post transcript):

QUESTION: In your remarks on stem cell research earlier this month, you talked about a majority consensus in determining whether or not this is the right thing to do, to federally fund embryonic stem cell research.

I’m just wondering, though, how much you personally wrestled with the morality or ethics of federally funding this kind of research, especially given the fact that science so far has shown a lot of progress with adult stem cells, but not a lot with embryonic?

OBAMA: OK. No, I think it’s — I think it’s a legitimate question. I — I wrestle with these issues every day.

As I mentioned to — I think in an interview a couple of days ago, by the time an issue reaches my desk, it’s a hard issue. If it was an easy issue, somebody else would have solved it and it wouldn’t have reached me.

Look, I believe that it is very important for us to have strong moral guidelines, ethical guidelines, when it comes to stem cell research or anything that touches on, you know, the issues of possible cloning or issues related to, you know, the human life sciences.

I think those issues are all critical, and I’ve said so before. I wrestle with it on stem cell; I wrestle with it on issues like abortion.

I think that the guidelines that we provided meet that ethical test. What we have said is that, for embryos that are typically about to be discarded, for us to be able to use those in order to find cures for Parkinson’s or for Alzheimer’s or, you know, all sorts of other debilitating diseases, juvenile diabetes, that — that it is the right thing to do.

And that’s not just my opinion. That is the opinion of a number of people who are also against abortion.

Now, I am glad to see progress is being made in adult stem cells. And if the science determines that we can completely avoid a set of ethical questions or political disputes, then that’s great.

I have — I have no investment in causing controversy. I’m happy to avoid it if that’s where the science leads us. But what I don’t want to do is predetermine this based on a very rigid ideological approach, and that’s what I think is reflected in the executive order that I signed.

QUESTION: I meant to ask — just to follow up — do you think that scientific consensus is enough to tell us what we can and cannot do?

OBAMA: No. I think there’s — there’s always an ethical and a moral element that has to be — be a part of this. And so, as I said, I — I don’t take decisions like this lightly. They’re ones that I take seriously, and — and I respect people who have different opinions on this issue.

But I think that this was the right thing to do and the ethical thing to do. And as I said before, my hope is, is that we can find a mechanism, ultimately, to cure these diseases in a way that gains 100 percent consensus. And we certainly haven’t achieved that yet, but I think on balance this was the right step to take.

Watching it on TV, I was struck by the civility of this exchange. And I was glad that Ward followed up with the question he did. It gave Obama the chance to state for the record that even science is not an ethically neutral enterprise.

So, perhaps what is really dead is the metaphor of “war” to describe our cultural differences. Abortion, embryonic stem cell research, gay marriage…the controversy around these issues isn’t going away any time soon. And finding “consensus” is always long, hard work. But perhaps, just perhaps, we’ve found a way to publicly deliberate our ethical differences without invoking warfare, violence, or demonization.

Perhaps these austere times have brought civility, respect, and integrity—religious values all—back to our public debate and discourse.

Because if we’ve learned anything at all lately, it’s that war ain’t cheap. Especially when money’s short.