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Sunday, July 04, 2010
Two Faiths: A Sunday Rumination
If there's a day in the calendar that's near to my heart for secular reasons, Independence Day would be it:
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
A brilliant friend, Mark LaRochelle of the Education and Research Institute, has called the Declaration of Independence "the crowning glory of human thought." It is indeed stunning, even overpowering. Its measure might best be taken from this: the crowned heads of the Old World could make no reply to it, even though the majority of the ideas it expressed had been born on their shores.
The author of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, may have been the most brilliant man ever to devote his intellect to government, yet he himself admitted freely that the bulk of the philosophy embedded in it was not his to claim. Yet it was he who pulled its ideas together into a coherent whole. It was he who gave those ideas their supremely eloquent expression. It was he who imbued it with the force that persuaded fifty-five other signatories, and ultimately, thousands of fighting men, to pledge to it "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour."
Many of those men paid the supreme price for their faith. We who have inherited their handiwork should honor them and their sacrifices more than once a year.
The early years of the Church were a time of great peril for its prelates and communicants. Persecution was the order of the day. The Roman Empire, which grudgingly tolerated the Judaic faith, would have no truck with Christianity. Owing to Christianity's detachment from particulars of ancestry or place, the Empire's rulers deemed it a far more dangerous competitor to State-supported Italo-Hellenic paganism. When Christian priests were caught by the authorities, they were routinely executed. Even lay Christians frequently met their end at the hands of the Roman authorities.
Many of the earliest saints of the Church were martyred for refusing to renounce Christ and pledge to the Roman pantheon. Nor were their deaths easy ones.
Why? The Jewish authorities of Judea had reacted badly to Christianity as well, but in the main had stopped short of pogroms against Christians. The Roman reaction in Rome proper was incomparably more ferocious. Wherever the Empire stood, Christian lives had to keep to the shadows. Christian rites had to be performed in secret. Christian preaching had to be treated as a toss of the dice, with most faces indicating a prompt and gory death.
Yet this is all Christ said:
Now someone came up to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?” He said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he asked. Jesus replied, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.” [Matthew 19:16-19]"'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." [Matthew 22:37-40]
“I give you a new commandment – to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another.” [John 13:34-35]
Too simple and too clearly wholesome to threaten anyone, right?
Wrong. A State-supported religion is always an instrument of power. It's employed to rationalize the powers and privileges of the ruling class. To those who seek to gain or retain absolute power over others, simplicity and wholesomeness are the ultimate enemies, ultimately indefeasible. Those who espouse them must be silenced; if they cannot be silenced, they must be killed.
To the tenets of Christ's New Covenant, the hierarchs of the Empire could make no sensible reply. The only response they could make was with the sword.
Both Christianity and freedom are under severe pressure at this time. The forces arrayed against one are equally hostile to the other. And I am of the ever firmer opinion that neither one can be sustained without defending the other equally well.
It's been noted many times that several of the most prominent of the Founders were not Christians, but Unitarians or Deists. True though that may be, not one of them had a disapproving word to say about the Christian faith. George Washington and Alexander Hamilton were Episcopalian Christians. John Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson all spoke explicitly of Christianity as an essential support to American ideals and the perpetuation of the freedom of the new nation.
Though the condition of freedom in these United States is perilous, it's still the case that three-quarters of us self-identify as Christian. I maintain that, upon sober reflection, we would soon reason our way to the conclusion that Christ's New Covenant, to be followed in a truly Christian spirit, requires that men be free. I maintain further, and with perfect confidence that no refutation is possible, that only in a condition of freedom can the Christian faith flourish as it has here. I cite the rest of the world as my evidence.
Americans have two faiths to defend. Let us pledge before God, on this Independence Day in the year of Our Lord 2010, to defend both with equal fervor: never to submit, never to surrender, and always to trust in God.
May He bless and keep you all.
Comments
AMEN to that ! I don’t remember how it was that I stumbled upon this site but it has been a treat. Excellent insights, wit and humor. I look forward what I might find each time I log on. God Bless.
Posted by on 07/04/2010 at 01:43 PMIf there was some way possible, posts like this one (and it is not unusual in it’s wisdom or it’s need to be heard by far, far more, then frequent here) need to be seen and read by as large an audience as possible. For what it is worth, I will link to this on my little perch on facebook, in hopes others will at least look in. Even if it is just one more visitor, perhaps they will encourage someone else to visit ... and so on, and so on.
Having said that, it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall, if you were able to have Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, and Madison over at your place for dinner and after dinner drinks. The conversation would be most interesting and one suspects informative. One thing it would not be is dull!!
Posted by Guy S on 07/04/2010 at 04:48 PM
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