“While a democracy seeks equality in liberty, it cannot be established without morality, nor can morality be established except through faith.” (de Tocqueville: Democracy in America, 1835)
The founding documents of this nation, whose inspiration and subsequent penning became a beacon of hope for the entire world, have now become archaic to a vast majority. And, if it wasn’t for those same principles having been written in the hearts of some, America as bastion of liberty would have ceased to exist long ago. Those same few, who in turn, invested in the currency of future generations, in the hope that one day others might rise once again to carry the torch of freedom. This nation was foraged in a furnace of passion, fed by the unquenchable fire of conviction, believing that through the willing sacrifice of a few, the many might be made free. Let us remember then Thomas Paine, English-born, colonial revolutionary, who in his now famous publication Common Sense, laid the groundwork of the colonial resistance by saying: “Britain is the parent country of prejudice, leaving little affection among us for those fetters of previous affliction; for the same tyranny that drove the first immigrants from their original home to these very shores continues to pursue their descendants still.”
Yet in the end, it was our Christian faith which carried us through. As George Washington so aptly put it: “Our pulpits became the very altar upon which the daily sacrifice was made. If it wasn’t for the fearlessness of our ministers, the fire of their exhortations and the light of their countenance, deep darkness would surely have overtaken us.“ And, there were many among them, such as evangelical Calvinist Jonathon Edwards, as well as theologian George Whitefield, Anglican priest and co-founder of Methodism.
These revivalist preachers not only helped ignite the Great Awakening of the mid-eighteenth century, but the American Revolution as well, in turn “giving birth to a shared consciousness of innate human dignity and a rationale for independence among the people of the British Colonies in America.” This declared birthright was made even clearer by the Venerable Bede,* author of The History of the English Church, who, writing in the seventh century, and commenting on the earlier birth of his own nation and the unification of the Anglo Saxon kingdoms under Christianity, said: “Our nation wasn’t only founded upon a sense of common blood, race, and language, but with a common mind.” And, it was this mind, which united the English people, not only in purpose, but in a moral certainty, that liberty was their Christian inheritance, and its preservation their solemn duty. Yet, that voluntary obligation to ensure the endurance of those democratic ideals was dependent upon a corresponding belief in God himself.
Even so, much like the Mosaic Law that was dispensed from Heaven, the democratic foundation of this country rests upon the same basic principles: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength“, and that “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mat. 22: 38,39) Yet, “how can they call upon Him, unless they first believe…and how can they believe unless they hear.” (Heb. 11:6) And, it is that which we, as ministers of the Gospel, must preach, for “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God.” (2 Cor. 10:4) And, being well-armed, we bring the sword of the Spirit to battle, “…which we bear not in vain, for although, as ministers of God, we are called to you for good, for those who do evil we are avengers to execute God’s wrath.” (Rom. 13:4)
Belief, and accountability to a living God then becomes a matter of conviction, based upon a faith which forms the bedrock of a democratic and civil society. Without which it devolves into anarchy, with everyone vying for their separate interests until subsumed by some form of tyranny By contrast, it is only through the process of faith and it’s conceptual realization, through direct participation, that the essential transformation of the individual occurs, from being weak and acquiescent to that an emboldened soldier who fights for freedom on behalf of others.
*Venerable Bede (673-735). English monk at the monastery of St. Peter and Paul, Northumbria, England. Venerated as “Doctor of the Church” by Pope Leo X111 in 1899, and holding the Historica Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum–a quill, a biretta.
*Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859). French aristocrat, diplomat, and political historian. Best known for his works Democracy in America, The Old Regime, and Revolution, he remained skeptical of the extremes of democracy.
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