| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"buckeye" |
| Date: |
13 Dec 2007 05:58:24 AM |
| Object: |
The Euro-American religious divide By Roger Cohen |
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/12/opinion/edcohen.php
Roger Cohen: The Euro-American religious divide
By Roger Cohen
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland: The cathedral here, on which work began in the 12th
century, was once the largest in Scotland, until a mob of reformers bent on
eradicating such lavish manifestations of "Popery" ransacked the place in
1559, leaving gulls to swoop through the surviving façade.
Europe's cathedrals are indeed "so inspired, so grand, so empty," as Mitt
Romney, a Mormon, put it last week in charting his vision of a faith-based
presidency. Some do not survive at all. The Continent has paid a heavy
price in blood for religious fervor and decided some time ago, as a French
king once put it, that "Paris is well worth a Mass."
Romney, a Republican candidate for the presidency and former Massachusetts
governor, was dismissive of European societies "too busy or too
'enlightened' to venture inside and kneel in prayer." In so doing, he
pointed to what has become the principal trans-Atlantic cultural divide.
Europeans still take their Enlightenment seriously enough not to put it in
quote marks. They have long found one of its most inspiring reflections in
the first 16 words of the American Bill of Rights of 1791: "Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof."
Thomas Jefferson famously saw those words as "building a wall of separation
between church and state." So, much later, did John F. Kennedy, who in a
speech predating Romney's by 47 years, declared: "I believe in an America
where the separation of church and state is absolute."
The absolute has proved porous. The U.S. culture wars of recent years have
produced what David Campbell, a political scientist at Notre Dame
University, called "the injection of religion into politics in a very overt
way."
European sources of alarm at George W. Bush's presidency have been
manifold, but unease at his allusions to divine guidance - "the hand of a
just and faithful God" in shaping events or his trust in "the ways of
Providence" - has been particularly acute.
Such beliefs seem to remove decision-making from the realm of the rational
at the very moment when the West's enemy acts in the name of a fanatical
theocracy. At worst, they produce references to a "crusade" against those
jihadist enemies. God-given knowledge does not take kindly to oversight.
But Bush is no transient phenomenon; he is the expression of a new American
religiosity rather than the creator of it. Romney's speech and the rapid
emergence of the anti-Darwin Baptist minister Mike Huckabee as a rival
Republican candidate suggest how distant the American zeitgeist is from the
European.
At a time when growing numbers of Americans identify themselves as "born
again" evangelicals, and creationism is no joke, Romney's speech
essentially pitted the faithful against the faithless while attempting to
merge Mormonism into mainstream Christianity. Where Kennedy said he
believed in a "president whose religious views are his own private affair,"
Romney pledged not to "separate us from our religious heritage."
"Religiosity now seems at least as important for public office as
leadership qualities," said Karl Kaiser, a German political scientist. "The
entrance condition for the American presidential race is being religious.
If you're not, you have no chance, which troubles Europeans."
Of course, the religious heritage of which Romney spoke is profound. The
Puritans' vision of "a city upon a hill" in America serving as a beacon to
humanity was based on a "covenant" with God. As the Bill of Rights was
formulated, George Washington issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation alluding
to "that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the
good that was, that is, or that will be."
But if religion informed America's formation, its distancing from the
political sphere was decisive to the republic's resilience. Indeed, the
devastating European experience of religious war and intolerance played an
important role in the founders' thinking. Seen against this backdrop,
Romney's speech and the society it reflects is far more troubling than
Europe's empty cathedrals.
Romney allows no place in the United States for atheists, who do not merit
a mention. He opines that "Freedom requires religion just as religion
requires freedom," yet secular Sweden is free while religious Iran is not.
He shows a Wikipedia-level appreciation of other religions - admiring "the
commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims" and "the ancient traditions
of the Jews" - that suggests his innermost conviction of what America's
true religion is. In all, masked beneath professions of tolerance, a
faith-first Christian vision emerges.
Romney rejected the "religion of secularism," of which Europe is on the
whole proud. But he should consider that Washington is well worth a Mass.
The fires of the Reformation that destroyed St. Andrews Cathedral are fires
of faith that endure in different forms. Jefferson's "wall of separation"
must be restored if those who would destroy the West's Enlightenment values
are to be defeated.
Readers are invited to comment at my blog: www.iht.com/passages
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************
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| User: "Michael" |
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| Title: Re: The Euro-American religious divide By Roger Cohen |
13 Dec 2007 07:25:38 PM |
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On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:58:24 -0500, buckeye wrote:
Romney allows no place in the United States for atheists, who do not merit
a mention. He opines that "Freedom requires religion just as religion
requires freedom," yet secular Sweden is free while religious Iran is not.
Just in case anyone is inclined to swallow this piece without checking the
salt; Sweden has a national, state sponsored religion while the USA does
not. Sweden is not secular. Sweden's national religion has been in the
news recently with regard to homosexual things vaguely resembling marriage.
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| User: "3887 Dead" |
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| Title: Re: The Euro-American religious divide By Roger Cohen |
13 Dec 2007 08:40:33 PM |
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On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:25:38 -0700, Michael <newsuser2@orneveien.org>
wrote:
On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:58:24 -0500, buckeye wrote:
Romney allows no place in the United States for atheists, who do not merit
a mention. He opines that "Freedom requires religion just as religion
requires freedom," yet secular Sweden is free while religious Iran is not.
Just in case anyone is inclined to swallow this piece without checking the
salt; Sweden has a national, state sponsored religion while the USA does
not. Sweden is not secular. Sweden's national religion has been in the
news recently with regard to homosexual things vaguely resembling marriage.
You're a little out of date there. According to the US State Dep't:
"The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government
generally respects this right in practice. The Church of Sweden,
formerly the state church, effectively became separated from the State
in 1999; however, it still receives some state support."
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2001/5688.htm
--
What do you call a Republican with a conscience?
An ex-Republican.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8827 (From Yang, AthD (h.c)
"I simply can not believe this is what the Republican party has
become. I just can’t. It just makes me sick to think all those years
of supporting this party, and this is what it has become. Even if you
don’t like the S-Chip expansion, it is hard to deny what Republicans
are- a bunch of bitter, nasty, petty, snarling, sneering, vicious
thugs, peering through people’s windows so they can make fun of their
misfortune.
I’m registering Independent tomorrow."
Putsch: leading America to asymetric warfare since 2001
Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.
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| User: "Michael" |
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| Title: Re: The Euro-American religious divide By Roger Cohen |
15 Dec 2007 02:15:57 PM |
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On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:40:33 -0800, 3887 Dead wrote:
Just in case anyone is inclined to swallow this piece without checking the
salt; Sweden has a national, state sponsored religion while the USA does
not. Sweden is not secular. Sweden's national religion has been in the
news recently with regard to homosexual things vaguely resembling marriage.
You're a little out of date there. According to the US State Dep't:
"The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government
generally respects this right in practice. The Church of Sweden,
formerly the state church, effectively became separated from the State
in 1999; however, it still receives some state support."
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2001/5688.htm
Of course I am, it is the very foundation of the Heisenburg Uncertainty
Principle -- my data is at least a week old, probably older. The news
pertains to laws imposed by Sweden and whether or not the state-supported
church is going to be compelled to marry homosexuals. The matter is not
yet settled; but the point is that Sweden does have a state church as
defined by United States standards of having any kind of direct government
support (with its corresponding strings and obligations).
A comparison was made between supposedly secular Europe and the United
States. A better comparison is that *because* Europe's churches tend to
be national, state supported churches, nobody thinks about them much nor
are they permitted to challenge national politics.
In the United States the picture is quite different. There is no national
religion, the government does not aid any religion, therefore, no
"strings" attach to any religion preventing it from being politically
active. Furthermore, any church that exists is "Darwinian" in its
survival; it must be *interesting* enough to continue to exist.
European style national religions would just dry up and blow away if only
3 percent of members ever attended and they did not have national support.
So what you have is interesting (at least to enough people to stay afloat)
religions, politically or morally active, operating in something vaguely
resembling a democracy -- the USA if you haven't guessed. You *cannot*
avoid or escape the impact of religion or its anti-religion (atheism) on a
regional basis; although on a national basis religion seems to have quite
a bit less impact.
Michael
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| User: "Phlip" |
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| Title: Re: The Euro-American religious divide By Roger Cohen |
13 Dec 2007 06:44:12 AM |
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buckeye wrote:
The absolute has proved porous. The U.S. culture wars of recent years have
produced what David Campbell, a political scientist at Notre Dame
University, called "the injection of religion into politics in a very overt
way."
That's because the crooks who obey their religions' morals the least are the
ones who want to wrap themselves simultaneously in the Flag and the Scripture.
Beware the false religiosity of the politician!
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