Thoughts on Religious Freedom
We are beginning to see more and more Orthodox Christians who want a closer alliance of Church and State along the lines of Byzantine symphonia (co-operation) or Catholic integrationalism. Whatever the romantic appeal, such a political philosophy is antithetical not only to the American Experiment but to the health of the Church in America.1
From Mark Tooley, “A National Conservative Faith?”
The new National Conservatism “Statement of Principles” has interesting and concerning things to say about religion in America. Aimed at Western nations, but drafted and signed mostly by Americans, it evinces a receding American consensus about Christianity’s traditional role in America. Secularists on the left often want to banish it; now some on the right want its establishment.
The statement’s “Public Religion” section is brief but potent. And its first section is manifestly true for nearly all religionists and religion-friendly traditionalists:
No nation can long endure without humility and gratitude before God and fear of his judgment that are found in authentic religious tradition. For millennia, the Bible has been our surest guide, nourishing a fitting orientation toward God, to the political traditions of the nation, to public morals, to the defense of the weak, and to the recognition of things rightly regarded as sacred. The Bible should be read as the first among the sources of a shared Western civilization in schools and universities, and as the rightful inheritance of believers and non-believers alike.
Its second section is dicier:
Where a Christian majority exists, public life should be rooted in Christianity and its moral vision, which should be honored by the state and other institutions both public and private. At the same time, Jews and other religious minorities are to be protected in the observance of their own traditions, in the free governance of their communal institutions, and in all matters pertaining to the rearing and education of their children. Adult individuals should be protected from religious or ideological coercion in their private lives and in their homes.
Does this section call for the state establishment of Christianity? It does not say so explicitly but arguably implies it.
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Incorporating Christianity specifically into a political manifesto, especially in America, is vexing. For two centuries, religion in America has not rested on state power. Its vitality, and its failures, are its own doing. Any revival of Christianity in America, or anywhere, depends on persons and communities, apart from government, seeking God through faith, prayer, and a thirst for holiness, with acts of mercy and love.
Public life in America will become more “rooted in Christianity” and transcendence only if American Christianity itself experiences a revival. As Thomas Jefferson warned: “civil incapacitations” beget “hypocrisy and meanness and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion.” The Gospel simply admonishes: repent and believe.
For more, see Kevin Augustyn, The Integralist Argument Is Wrong, Even If You’re Catholic .