As
As Eric Metaxas shows in his book about this American vision,
If You Can Keep It," the founders understood that this people for whom they were designing this government had to be of a particular sort. Not just any people could be a self=governing people, they had to be a religious and moral people. John Adams put this most famously but others said the same thing as Metaxas shows.
If You Can Keep It," the founders understood that this people for whom they were designing this government had to be of a particular sort. Not just any people could be a self=governing people, they had to be a religious and moral people. John Adams put this most famously but others said the same thing as Metaxas shows.
So when
Althoiugh the main founders weren't Christian believers in the full sense, they were deeply imbued with Christian morality and a Christian worldview and understood these to be the essential elelments of the people who could be entrusted with this government they had finally hammered out.
I think it's important to understnad, although perhaps the founders themselve sdidn't really understand this, that this religiosity they saw as necessary to the qualification to be a citizen of thi nation had to be the Christian religion. Washington siaid something to the effect that even Islam would work, or I think he said something like that. Freedom of religion was granted to all the religions as if it all amounts to the same thing and produces the same kind of person. But of course it sdoes not. Islam produces a completely different kind of person and a completely different kind of cujltured, and in its strictest fundamental form it is at odds with the very freedoms Amerian is known for. And if you get into the inner workings of the Roman Catholic theology you will find a simnilar opposition to such freedoms. Yes. That's why they had an Inquisition whichh tortured and killed those who disagreed with its dogmas. THAT SAME DOTGGMA PERSISTS IN ITS COREW AND GIVEN THE OPPORTUJITY WOULD BE FULLY EXPRESSED IN A REVIVED iNQUISITOIN. tHE iNQUISITION BY THE SAY HAS PERSISTED IN SOME cATHOLIC COUNTRIES AND NEVER ENDED, THOUGH IN A HIDDEN WAY.
sO WHILE PEOPLE OF DISPARATE RELIGIONHS DO LIVE IN aMERICA WITH FREEDOM TO PRACTICE THEIR RELIGION, AND ARE AS FAR AS ANYONE CAN TELL AS GOOD CITIZENS AS THE pROTESTANTS WHO EMBODY THE RELIGION i THINK IS THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF THE amERICAN VISION, IN REALITY THERE IS A HUGE DIFFERENC ES IN OUTLOOK AND POTENTION POTENTIAL BEHAVIOR AMONG THE DIFERENT GROUPS. iT MAY BE THAT THE aMERICAN VISION ITSELF CONVERTS PEOPLE AWAY FROM THE OPPOSITION OF THEIR RELIGIONS ENOUGH TO BE A BARRICADE TO THE FULFILLMENT OF THEIR INHERENT TENDENCIES WHICH ARE AT ODDS WITH IT. i CAN SEE HOW THAT MIGHT BE THE DCASE, BUT i'M ALSO ONLY TOIO AWARE OF THAT FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENE THAT WOULD EXPRESS ITSELF IN ANTIaMERICAN WAYS IF IT HAD FREE REIN. sO i'VE NEVER BEEN COMPLETELY HAPPY WITH THE IDEA OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION THAT EMBRACES RELIGONS SO CLEARLY INIMICAL TO THE aMERICAN VISION. aaND OF COURSE IT'S NOT JUST iSLAM AND cATHOLICISM BUT ALL RELIGIONS IN ONE WAY OR ANORTHER. tHE REAL RELIGION AT THE BASE OF aMERICAN FREECDOM IS pROTESTANTISM AND AS FAR AS i KNOW THAT'S NOT USUALLY RECOGNIZED. sOME HAVE RECOGNIZED IT BUT NOT IN THE LAST CENTURY AND THIT'S THE SORT OF RECOGNIZION THAT IS EASILY SUPPRESSED IN TODAY'SC CLIMATE.
tHE RELIGIOUS NATURE THAT dEtOQUEVILLE LAUDED AS SO CONGENIAL TO THE aMERIAN FVISION OF FREEDOM WAS pROTESTANTISM. dID HE NOTE THAT OR NOT? tHE pROTESTANTISM THAT HAD BEEN PREACHED IN THE gREAT aWAKENING BY gEORGE wHITEFIELD AND THE wELEYS AND jONATHAN eDWARDS. tHIS IS THE FOUNDATIONAL RELIGIOSITY THAT PERHAPS WITHOUT RECOGNIZEING IT THE FOUNDERS CONSIDERED TO BE ESSENTIAL TO THE SUCCESS OF THE rEPUBLIC THEY HAD CRAFTED. iN THEIR DAY THAT pROTESTANTISM WAS FRESH FROM THE gREAT aWAKENING AND AT LEAST NINETY FIVE PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE OF aMERCA WOULD HAVE LIVED B IT.
wELL, WE'VE LOST IT BYNOW. tHAT'S FOR SURE.
sO AS i'VE BEEN PONDERING WHAT WOULD BE NEEDED TO RESTORE aMERICA TO ANYHTHING LIKE WHAT IT WAS ORIGINALLY MEANT RTO BE, TO RESTORE IT FROM THIS COLLAPSE INTO TYRANNY WE ARE NOW LIVING THROUGH, i'M RUNNING UP AGAINT THIS SENSE OF THE NATURE OF THE PEOPLE NECESSARY TO THAT ORIGINAL VISION AND THE PROBLEM OF HOW THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES COULD BE RECLAIMED. nOT EVEN PARTICULARLY THINKING OF THE RELIGION ITSELF BUT CEWTAINLY OF A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW, A cULTURAL cHRISTIANITY AS NECESSARY TO RESTORING THE VISION.
oDDLY ENOUGH i STARTED THIS TRAIN OF THOUGHT BY CONSIDERTING THTA WHAT IS NEEDED IS THE EDUCATION OF LIBERALS WHO HAVE BEEN LIVING IN A PROPAGANDISTIC LIE FOR DECADES NOW. a BLITZ OF INFORMATION TO DISABUSE THEM OF THAT LIE IS WHAT i WAS THINKING IS THE MAIN THING NEEDED IF WE ARE TO RESTORE THE NATION AND SAVE US ALL FROM TOTALITARIAN BRUTALITY. wHEN PEOPLE LEAVE TH XCDDEMOCRATIC PARTY IN THAT MOVEMENT CALLED THE WALKWAWAY MOVEMENT THEY'VE OFTEN DONE SO ON THE BSIS OF REO CCOGNIZING THE TRUTH ABOUT SOMETHING THE'D BEEN DECEIVED ABOUT BEFORE, BYU THE MEDIA OR THE GOVERNMENT AND SO ON. tHAT'S THE SORT OF THING i WAS THINKING OF. aND THAT LED ME TO THE GENERAL RECOGNITION THAT IT'S THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE THESMELVES THAT THE FOUNDERS UNDERSTOOD QUALIFIED OR DISQUALIFIED US FOR THE KIND OF GIVERNMENT THEY CREATED.
mETASXAX POINHTS OUT AMONG OTHER THINGS THAT WHEN WE TRY TO BRING DEMOCRACY TO OTHER CULTURES WE REALLY DON'T SUCCEED VERY WELL. wE MAY SUCCEED IN GETTING A GENERATION TO HAVE ELECTIONS AND EXPRESS THEIR VOTE, BUT BECAUSE THEIR CULTURAL EXPERIENCE IS AT ODDS WITH THE LIBERTY OF THE aMERICAN VISION THEY CAN'T KEEP THEIR SUPPOSED NEW FREEDOMS FOR LONG AND QUICKLY DEVOLVE BACK INTO THEIR NORMAL TYRANNICAL FRAMEWORK. aFGHANISTAN LIBERATED FROM sADDAM hUSSEIN.
aMERICANS
aMERICANS TOO HAVE CULTURAL LY DEVOLVED TO A POINT THAT MAY MAKE ANY RECOVERY OF THE ORIGINAL aMERICAN VISION IMPOSSIBLE.
sOMETGIMES i THINK IF WE LIVE IN A NATION THAT CAN BRING PORNOGRAPHY UNDER THE BANNER OF FREEDOM OF SPPEECH WE'RE DOOMED. i DON'T WANT TO THINK THAT. i WANT TO HTHIHNK WE CAN RECOVER THE ORIGINAL MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CHARACTER NEEDED TO FULFILLE THE AMERICAN VISION, BUT THE MORE i THINK ABOUT THAT ONE EXAMPLE THE LESS SANQUINE i AM ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF RECOVERING WHAT WE'VE LOST.
