A Study in Contrasts on D-Day: Secular Humanism vs. Bibles

A Study in Contrasts on D-Day: Secular Humanism vs. Bibles


On June 6, 2004, the President of France, Jacques Chirac, made his
remarks at Normandy commemorating D-Day. Chirac appropriately gave his
sincere thanks to all that America sacrificed to liberate France in
1944. President Bush followed with his own remarks. The contrast
between the contents of these two speeches tells us much about the
difference between secular France and a United States in which many
Americans still view themselves as religious.

When the invasion was finally over and the guns were silent, this
coast, we are told, was lined for miles with the belongings of the
thousands who fell. There were life belts and canteens and socks and
K-rations and helmets and diaries and snapshots. And there were Bibles,
many Bibles, mixed with the wreckage of war.

A Study in Contrasts on D-Day: Secular Humanism vs. Bibles

Shall You Trust Secular Humanism Or Bible?

A Study in Contrasts on D-Day: Secular Humanism vs. Bibles


On June 6, 2004, the President of France, Jacques Chirac, made his
remarks at Normandy commemorating D-Day. Chirac appropriately gave his
sincere thanks to all that America sacrificed to liberate France in
1944. President Bush followed with his own remarks. The contrast
between the contents of these two speeches tells us much about the
difference between secular France and a United States in which many
Americans still view themselves as religious.

Not once in his speech--as far as I can see--does the French President
mention God. He never invokes the blessings of God on the free world,
nor does he invoke God's mercy on the departed. Instead, Chirac, true
to the heritage of secularism borne of the French Revolution, invokes
"humanist" values:

For over 200 years now, the same humanist values have shaped the
destinies of France and America. Our two nations have never ceased to
share common love of liberty and law, of justice and democracy. These
values are rooted in the very depths of our cultures and civilization.
They are the spirit of our peoples. They are the heart and soul of our
nations. From the plains of Yorktown to the beaches of Normandy, in the
suffering of those global conflicts that have rent the past century,
our two countries, our two peoples have stood shoulder to shoulder in
the brotherhood of blood spilled, in defense of a certain ideal of
mankind, of a certain vision of the world -- the vision that lies at
the heart of the United Nations Charter.

Source: Available at this link (emphasis added).

http://news.findlaw.com/prnewswire/20040606/06jun2004064346.html

In contrast, President Bush invoked the mercy of God on those who died
on D-Day and ended his speech with a poignant reference to the many
Bibles that were strewn among the dead American bodies that littered
the French coast on D-Day:

When the invasion was finally over and the guns were silent, this
coast, we are told, was lined for miles with the belongings of the
thousands who fell. There were life belts and canteens and socks and
K-rations and helmets and diaries and snapshots. And there were Bibles,
many Bibles, mixed with the wreckage of war. Our boys had carried in
their pockets the book that brought into the world this message:
Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends.

America honors all the liberators who fought here in the noblest of
causes, and America would do it again for our friends. May God bless
you. (Applause.)

Chirac's blatant secularism echoes the French refusal to incorporate
any references to God in the European Union's new constitution, in
spite of insistent pleas from the Pope and some other European nations.

The French Revolution ushered in an era of instability, dictatorship,
war, humiliation, and surrender for France beginning in 1789 and ending
with the ignominy of Vichy France. In fact, the French Revolution is
famous for its Reign of Terror. In today's world in which terrorists
are the prime external enemies of the free world, France gave us the
first terrorists in the Reign of Terror.

Something is radically wrong in a France where at a solemn occasion
commemorating the dead the President of the Republic makes no reference
to God. A growing Middle Eastern population and declining French
fertility indicate that French society will likely face major
demographic changes in the near future. In my view, such declining
fertility is a function of secularism. Ironically, French secularism
may very well lead to increased religious fundamentalism from its
Muslim residents. The country that spawned the Reign of Terror may face
increased anti-secular Muslim terrorist activity on its own soil. The
Old Europe is sick, and the source of its sickness is plain for all to
see: a visceral hostility to religion.

Something is radically wrong in a France where at a solemn occasion
commemorating the dead the President of the Republic makes no reference
to God.

A Study in Contrasts on D-Day: Secular Humanism vs. Bibles

A Study in Contrasts on D-Day: Secular Humanism vs. Bibles