Democracy Without God?
December 6th, 2007 by Peter
I’ve had occasion to note the existence of New Haven’s underground Catholic scene. Many of you involved in it are abuzz about tonight’s event. From For God, For Country and For Yale:
Democracy Without God?
Reflections on Europe and America
Free Lecture by George Weigel
Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
Church of St. Mary
5 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven
George Weigel, author of the biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope, will be coming to New Haven to discuss the increasing secularization of Europe and the consequences of that trend for Europe and for the United States. He will address the question posed in his recent book, The Cube and the Cathedral: Which culture — secular or Christian — would more firmly secure the moral foundations of democracy?
Please join us — all are welcome!
Yes, I’ve gotten everyone’s e-mails on this, and I look forward to seeing all of you tonight.
And I’ll try to post more of these items–both Catholic and Protestant–as they come my way. (Btw, did I mention there’s a big Christian concert in New Milford this weekend? Do check out Pray Connecticut. Nick covers this stuff better than anyone.)
Since we’re talking music–all are welcome to a free “Musical Celebration of the Birth of Jesus Christ” with choir and orchestra this weekend. The concert is entitled “We Rejoice in Christ” and is at 8 p.m. both Fri. and Sat. eves.
Fri. Dec. 7th will be at the Southbury Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at intersection of Routes 167 & 172 in Southbury.
Sat. Dec. 8th the concert will be in Woodbridge at 990 Racebrook Road (which is just north of the Merritt Parkway, from exit 57).
That topic does sound interesting, and relavent.
We all know how secualized our own country has become.
There is a similar growing problem in western Europe, once the very cradle of Christianity.
The Catholic Church is also having problems currently in South America, home to moire than 50% of the wrold’s Catholics. Abortions are increasing there as well.
We now have the European Union. If certain groups and individuals get their way, we will soon have the North American Union, which will be far more evident supposedly by 2010.
I have heard and read of similar plans yet to be forwarded in other regions of the globe as well, such as Asia. All these various free trade treaties, beginning with NAFTA and GATT, were just the opening round. Our vast and diverse world is increasingly shrinking and homogenizing.
Revelation speaks of a limited number of world kingdoms, or words to that efffect, just like the mark of the beast on the hand (microchipping). It all looks pretty spooky but sadly prophetic to me.
I mention this because I can’t help but notice how countries in our increasingly globalizing society lose identity, and eventually, sovreignty. (Liberty is next!) The overall erosion of our culture aside, I think much of this globalization and regionalizing of national governments has much to do with fulfilling John’s revealtions and the decay of Holy Mother, The Church, and her influence. It’s much easier to persuade a group collectively than individually, and traditions and morals seem to be the first to go.
The European Union supposedly removed any and all mention of God in its constitution’s preamble when formed. There was a fight over that, but I beleive the secularists won. As the saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind?”, right? Secularists aren’t that hard to see through.
Politics and patriotism aside, I can’t help but beleive that globalization and secularization are both linked and both evil.
Prophesies usually fortell the future in the context of if people don’t change. We all need to do less worrying about the too often misinterpretted idea of separation of Church & State and start reading betwen the lines more often. The two institutions are more linked (and probably should be to a degree) more often then we realize.
Is religion not part of a culture, and thus, a nation, itself?
Doug
Strangely enough the European Unions Constitutional fight mirrors our own in the regard to the mention of God. There is not a single mention of God in the general (or to Christianity in the specific) in our Constitution. Not one at all. There were many attempts to insert language to that effect throughout the lengthy writing process but all such efforts failed. The end result was and purely secular document.
This was further bolstered by the Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 of the treaty contains the following:
As the Government of the United States…is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion–as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of Musselmen–and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
This document was endorsed by both Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and President John Adams. When sent to the Senate for ratification; the vote was unanimous. It is of note that although this was the 339th time a recorded vote had been required by the Senate, it was only the third unanimous vote in the Senate’s history. There is no record of debate or dissent of any kind.
When the Constitution was published there was much public criticism from many in the public and the clergy concerning this lack of God. In the personal papers of the architects of the document there can be found many commentary defending their explicit choice to write a purely secular constitution.
But let’s not ignore the Declaration of Independence, which refers to Nature’s God and to the Creator by whom we are endowed with certain unalienable Rights. And which also expresses reliance upon protection from Divine Providence.
Furthermore, if we are going to rely upon the text of treaties with the Barbary states, then let’s not forget …
The 1786 treaty with Morocco begins with the words “In the name of Almighty God”. It also refers to “trusting in God”, expresses a hope for the “help of God” (twice!)
The 1797 treaty with Tunis begins with the words “God is infinite” and refers to the “permission of God”.
The 1805 treaty with Tripoli, which superseded the earlier 1796 treaty, did not include the phrasing “the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.” Instead it simply recites that “the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the Laws, Religion or Tranquility of Musselmen.”
The 1836 treaty with Morocco invokes “the name of God, the merciful and Clement” and offers “praise to God”. Once again it expresses hope for the “help of God” (three times!)
Understanding the context of the Barbary Wars and the treaties, the numerous references to Christian Powers (i.e. nations) which occur in the texts are clearly directed towards other parties besides the United States and Moors. To be specific, the references to Christian Powers are meant to describe the European nations whose control of the Mediterranean Sea had lapsed with the downfall of the garrison on Malta (when the Knights of Malta were defeated by Napoleon’s navy, en route to Egypt) and with whom the corsairs/pirates had been continually in conflict through centuries of tensions and hostilities. Keep in mind that prior to the French revolution, peace treaties between the United State and France referred to their monarch as “the most Christian King”. And most certainly the King of England was the supreme head of the Church of England during this time. It is nations such as these that were meant by the historical euphemism, Christian Powers. That the United States would seek to describe itself otherwise is no surprise, since we could rightfully claim we had no single official “state church”.
With a proper knowledge of this historical background, it becomes clear that the United States sought to politically disassociate itself from being categorized under the same blanket of enmity that the Moors held towards European nations with whom they had so long struggled. The United States at that time did not wish to be counted among the nations that had crusaded against Islam, for they could ill afford the exposure given their limited military resources. Consequently, the denial of being founded exclusively on the Christian religion was simply made for the sake of political expediency rather than for any particularly theological reason.
I will grant you the United States is not an exclusively Christian nation, and never has been. The first amendment is quite clear about how we value freedom of religion. But let’s not deny God altogether!
P.S. You can learn even more about these treaties through the Avalon Project at Yale University.
P.P.S. I think we might be missing the most important lesson of the Barbary Wars, which is that appeasement of pirates/terrorists (e.g. the ransom money paid by the Jefferson administration) doesn’t work in the end. Remember we had to go back to war a second time, roughly 10 years later, to ultimately settle the conflict. Hmm, any parallels to that?