Unity, Freedom and Tolerance

Jesus stated that a house divided against itself cannot stand [Matthew 12:25].  History abundantly reveals bloody, violent conflicts between people groups, within and between nations. We have a hard time getting along. We need something to unify us, and that is usually against a common enemy. If we don't recognize a common enemy, we tend to create one, sometimes within our own ranks. We use a phrase in our Democracy: E Pluribus Unum; out of many one. America has prided itself on bringing together people from many diverse cultures into a certain unity. And we have been blessed geographically with a vast land bordered by big oceans on the east and west and good neighbors on the north and south. Abraham Lincoln noted this fortunate phenomenon and warned against the true threat to our survival:

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?-Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!-All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined ... could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

(Abraham Lincoln, "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions: Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois," January 27, 1838.)

Of course Lincoln could never have anticipated the advent of nuclear weapons which would cause our great America to be concerned with appealing to such an insignificant and tyrannical nation as North Korea. But such is our state today since we have recently garnered from the earth the power to destroy it, and we do not have the ability to keep this power out of the hands of insane power mongers. Nevertheless, this recent historical development, as well as other insidious developments such as the threat of Islamic theocracy, has not eradicated the necessity of American unity; on the contrary, it has intensified the necessity of it to insure our survival and the survival of the unprecedented freedom provided by it.

But what is it that has unified us? What has been the essence of our unity? I submit that it has been the principles and spirit of Judeo-Christianity--the belief in a loving God who has created all people equally and who has commanded [but not forced] us to walk in the Spirit of Love exemplified by Jesus the Christ. I submit two quotes from respected and like-minded ancestors, George Washington and french philosopher and historian Alexis de Tocqueville:

In 1783, after leading the American forces to victory, Gen. George Washington resigned his military commission. In a circular letter to the governors of the American states, he offered his “earnest prayer” for the new nation that God “would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of the mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion; without an humble imitation of whose example, in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.” [emphasis added].

This humble "Divine Author" could be none other than Jesus Christ who washed his disciples' feet and called himself a "servant". [Jn 13;  Mt 20:28] And note that our Founding Father labeled this Christianity "our blessed religion"; the religion of our nation. Jesus himself prayed for unity among his followers and unity has ever been a theme of the Christian faith--unity in the Love of Christ. The fact that there has been division and other evils in the Church does not nullify the essence and reality of Christianity; it confirms the reality of the evil embedded in human nature to which the Scripture points and exposes---and eventually uproots, when followed to its rightful end. 

Alexis de Tocqueville was an astute observer of the policies of men. He turned his keen eye on American Democracy and summarized:

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers – and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce – and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution – and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

de Tocqueville understood, as did my mother who never progressed beyond the sixth grade in formal education, that our American Democracy derives its "genius" "power" and "greatness" from the Christian faith; or more fundamentally, from Christ Himself. 

I believe, in the deepest fiber of my being, impassioned by a deep and sincere love for my nation and the freedoms and privileges we have enjoyed and made progressively more available to all classes of people, that if we detach ourselves from the Christian Faith, we will decline into a bottomless pit of division, polarization, enmity, self-righteousness, arrogance, greed, and entitlement bereft of a sense of responsibility. Our power to defend ourselves against Islamic theocracy and power mongers like Putin and Kim Jong-Un [whose nation's unity is fueled by fear] will be dissipated in useless internal strife. Edmund Burke stated: 

“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites…in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

In this again we see the necessity of "moral chains" or restraints upon the "will and appetite" of the dark and prevalent aspects of human nature in order for freedom to prosper. Either religion does this internally or the law does it externally. [In the case of Islam, religion does it externally.] Jesus stated that he came not to destroy, but to fulfill the law. We understand that the law is fulfilled in the Divine Love that Christ brings into the heart of those who receive Him. The propagation of this Gospel--this Good News--must be encouraged by every freedom-loving person and institution in our nation and world. The suppression of this Gospel for any reason [tolerance, plurality, separation of church and state, freedom from religion, etc.] is counter-productive to the freedom enjoyed by all those people who propagate those anti-Gospel sentiments. And the search for ultimate unity and happiness in the human family will continue to be frustrated time and time again until we settle upon this Divine Reality.