Mark Steyn: One nation under God

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 03/14/04 | Mark Steyn

[Eva]

As I see it, the big question for John Kerry should be, "If you don't support the defense of marriage act, will you guarantee the freedom of religion to churches that do not condone homosexuality?

[moodyskeptic]

Good catch. I saw that line, too and it jumped at me.

Steyn the Distiller.

[Brian Allen]

<< With the way things are going in the US I am not sure that it will remain a moral force. I suspect that Civil War II will ensue instead. >>

I'm all for another American War of Independence. God knows the first was fit to rid Our Beloved FRaternal Republic of less a tyrant in the form of England's post-Magna-Charta George the Third than sit by the score on the benches of our nation's courts and rule by tyrannical fiat!

And as my Hero of Heroes once observed, while "Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate systematical job of reducing us to slaves."

And reminded us that "The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Blessings -- Brian

[xp38]

Excellence from Mark Steyn is the norm. It is far rarer when he writes a less than great column. In fact for those who read everything he writes it's a shock when it does happen but he is so prolific by the next day something like this one pops up.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

It was said some time ago that within the notoriously "poor" nation of India there are as many people who are as prosperous as there are in France.

there are now more than two hundred million Chinese Christians -- and their numbers increase by hundreds of thousands per year.

Can it then be said that there is a "moral United States" hidden inside officially atheistic China?

[Agent Smith]

Mark Steyn my hero. Talk about kicking @ss!

[Gritty]

Steyn = Marvelous!

[independentmind]

And the free market in churches enables religion to thrive.

Overly simplistic, Mr. Steyn.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

Great news! I knew there was "a bunch"; I knew they were growing fast; but I didn't have a clue as to how many.

200 million? That's more than there are communists!

And like Eastern Europe and USSR, the communist hierarchy cannot suppress them. In fact, persecution helps Christianity to grow. What is deadly is prosperity and apathy among Christians.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

"In this situation, the Christian fundamentalists, Holy Rollers, born-again Bible Belters and Jesus freaks of America are the rationalists. It’s the hyper-rationalists of secular Europe who are living on blind faith."

My favorite quote. I'm a rational fundamentalist.

[Naomi4]

Steyn is brilliant as usual. Thank you for posting.

[Askel5]

==== And like Eastern Europe and USSR, the communist hierarchy cannot suppress them. In fact, persecution helps Christianity to grow. What is deadly is prosperity and apathy among Christians.


No doubt the faith of some survived the persecutions -- dare we say "holocaust" of believers that was overt communist rule -- but I have my doubts about the state-sanctioned and corporate-sponsored Dramatic show of Faith that is resurrecting the Cathedral of Christ in Moscow and canonizing what could be cobbled together of the Romanov remains in Petersburg.

If Stalin understood the efficacy of "faith" and sanctioned God during wartime, who's to say the Former Soviets (and others) aren't hip to the idea?


I dunno ... is the fact our President has no compunction about salting with Scripture his prime-time pitch to legitimize the manufacture of human life as a cash crop somehow translate to our being "religious"?

Is the fact we're taking the Lord's name in vain as shield for our Crusades against terrorism somehow translate as "religious"?

Is our reserving the word "marriage" for heteros (while protecting the "civil unions" from which Family Benefits spring in our welfare state) -- even those who expressly exclude God's will from the family with birth control -- somehow a testament to our Christian understanding of marriage?

[Jonathon Spectre]

This may possibly be Steyn's finest work yet. Humorous and extremely thought-provoking.

[Billthedrill]

I have always believed the "Bush is a fundamentalist" canard to be a case of willful misperception engaged in by people who don't really have a clear idea of either Bush or Christian (at least) fundamentalism. Bush is, in fact, a Methodist, which hardly puts him at the forefront of wild-eyed evangelicals.

One wonders at the perspective that might allow this view to be as widespread as it apparently is. It would have to be, as Steyn implies, one of a devout secularism as insular and uneducated as it accuses its Christian counterparts of being. One also wonders at the brittle cynicism that replaces a faith in God with an equally touching if somewhat less well-founded faith in State. Clearly the State is a god that has failed or at the very least is failing, and the European and internationalist insistence that the State must be universal and onniscient - a world government - to be effective mirrors similar requirements levied by other religious fundamentalists, Islam's most recently. There is absolutely no basis for belief that a bureaucratic, centralized governmental structure that is incapable of making Europe flourish will do so for the world at large, any more than there is a basis for assuming that a Caliphate that has reduced the Middle East to poverty will obtain different results should it become universal. These are the tenets held by those for whom faith has triumphed over reason, and that is as true of a secular evangelical as it is of a religious one.

The question remains, who is really misled by faith here? I humbly suggest that it isn't Mr. Bush.

[Brian Allen]

<< "In this situation, the Christian fundamentalists, Holy Rollers, born-again Bible Belters and Jesus FReaks of America are the rationalists. It?s the hyper-rationalists of secular Europe who are living on blind faith."

My favorite quote. I'm a Rational Fundamentalist. >>

Me too!

bumpPING

[expatguy]

I fear that in 50 years, American young people will be emigrating to China in search of education, freedom and prosperity.

Leaving the USA yes. China, Im not so sure.

[Travis McGee]

Steyn is the most brilliant mind I can think of today. Dennis Prager is also up there.