From whence comes peace? One secularist hopes that our
common human concerns and needs might provide the necessary human glue for
peace:
·
Commonality in our beliefs; commonality in our
concept of the world; commonality in our hopes for the future of humanity.
He feels that world peace can be achieved once we identify and
discuss our common concerns, and he has a point. We do share many common concerns
- peace, happiness, prosperity, and health, among other things. It would
therefore seem that cooperation, and not conflict, should provide the common
ground for ongoing win-win transactions. This is something we couldn't possibly
achieve with a mosquito, whose interest - sucking our blood - is diametrically
opposed to ours.
However, we have always
shared these common interests, but wars have persisted. In fact, the ancients
might have had even more savvy than we. They would marry their daughters off to
rival kings. Pretty clever!
There also seems to be another problem. Many leaders have
had ambitions - world conquest, for example - that have trumped our shared
concerns.
This very evident problem has many thinking in terms of
promoting a benign universal spirituality that would pronounce an emphatic
"no" against our destructive tendencies.
What would such a spirituality look like? Secularism insists
that God must be left out of the picture. After all, God just causes divisions,
right? Consequently, the unifying moral code would be strictly pragmatic. It
would be based on promoting those behaviors that serve human thriving.
But could such a spirituality win the hearts of humanity?
Can humanity be convinced, by virtue of a secular morality, to love and not to
enslave? After all, our world has shrunk. We are so interconnected. Will not
the subjugation of one people negatively impact others so that all would just
want to do good?
Are there any lessons that we can learn from the past? For
example, what principles had made this nation great? Alexis de Tocqueville,
French statesman, historian and social philosopher, wrote Democracy in America (1835). It has been described as "the
most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between
character and society in America that has ever been written."
Tocqueville had been well acquainted with the demands for
freedom and equality that had arisen from his own French revolution, albeit
grounded in the hatred and murder of the clergy. This revolution had
confidently sought to push aside anything that stood in its way. However, with the advantage of decades of
hindsight, this had become something that the French wanted to avoid at all
costs. Tocqueville, therefore, wrote,
·
The safeguard of morality is religion, and
morality is the best security of law and the surest pledge of freedom.
He therefore appreciated the moral constraints that he found
so ubiquitously associated with democracy in the USA:
·
I do not question that the great austerity of
manners that is observable in the United States arises, in the first instance,
from religious faith... its influence over the mind of woman is supreme, and
women are the protectors of morals. There is certainly no country in the world
where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America or where conjugal
happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated...
Continually, he found that the fruitful expression of
democracy was inseparable from its underlying Christian roots:
·
In the United States the influence of religion
is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the
people.... Christianity, therefore, reigns without obstacle, by universal
consent; the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of
the moral world is fixed and determinate.
·
I sought for the key to the greatness and genius
of America in her harbors...in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her
rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and
institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her
matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard
her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius
and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases
to be good, America will cease to be great.
The Founding Fathers could have told Tocqueville the same
things. George Washington, our first President, often spoke on the central role
of the Christian faith:
·
You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways
of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a
greater and happier people than you are. (The Writings of Washington, John C.
Fitzpatrick, editor (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1932), Vol. XV, p.
55, from his speech to the Delaware Indian Chiefs on May 12, 1779)
Even our first Unitarian President, John Adams, affirmed
that Christianity was necessary for national welfare:
·
"The general principles, on which the
Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful
Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be
intended by them in their address, or by me in my answer.
·
And what were these general Principles? I
answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were
United: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which
all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in
Majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.
·
Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now
believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and
immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of
Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane
System.” (June 28, 1813 excerpt from a letter to Thomas Jefferson)
·
"The second day of July, 1776, will be the
most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it
will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival.
It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of
devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with
shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of
this continent to the other, from this time forward forever." (Adams wrote
this in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, 1776.)
Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President, arguably our least
religious President, wrote:
·
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And
can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only
firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of
the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?” (Notes
on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237)
James Madison, framer of the Bill of Rights and 4th President of the USA:
·
I have sometimes thought there could not be a
stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even
the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful
departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare
their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ;
and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way. (The Papers of James Madison, William T. Hutchinson, editor
(Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1962), Vol. I, p. 96, to William
Bradford on September 25, 1773)
Why are we so quick to forget their lessons and
observations? Why, instead, are we placing our hope in a new and untried
spirituality?
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