Religion is compatible with morality if it is constrained by morality defined independently of revelation. This path is wholly open to religion, as thinkers like Immanuel Kant and John Spong have shown. Religion conflicts with morality if we regard a revealed text or priestly authority as infallibly or presumptively right such that it overrides reasoned human judgment. The biblical story of Abraham and Isaac teaches us that undeviating submission to the reported word of God is incompatible with morality. Unconscious aestheticism and the habit of associating religious devotion with intellectual passivity are among the reasons why people have confused morality with scripture. A nonfundamentalist approach that I call “liberal religion” avoids the demotion of morality and has the potential to cultivate and strengthen morality.