November/December 2005

I know that many Christians were startled recently to hear televangelist Pat Robertson call for the elimination/assassination of President Chavez of Venezuela. Astute political observers know that such an idea is not exactly off the table: indeed; it was a failed U.S.-backed coup against Chavez that fed his paranoia. But official U.S. policy forbids such an action. And what about the “gospel of peace”—the Christian imperative to respect life? One would have to look to the mind-set of “Christians” such as Torquemada the Inquisitor to find a rationale to justify calling for the death of another human.

Since the presidential election of 2000 there have been many more controversial issues and cases around the country that have, in one way or another, involved either the Supreme Court or the Constitution of the United States.

Only weeks after the ravages of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Liberty editor Lincoln Steed visited Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, countries with significant damage and loss of life. While he did see some of the devastation firsthand, and heard eyewitness reports of running from a wall of water, the trip was more concerned with projecting religious freedom values to Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

My hometown newspaper recently published a letter entitled “Christians Will Retake the Nation.” The writer made statements such as: “Once again the voice of the Christian is heard in the land, and it frightens those whose letters drip with hate. They are frightened of us . . . . Christians have once again found their voices and have begun to assert their right as the majority to govern themselves.”

The steel-and-glass skyline of Manhattan still soars toward the heavens with the confidence of a people born free. But the cradle of this freedom is not found in the luxury of Wall Street or the neon sparkle of Times Square. Instead, it rests in a simple farmhouse located near the No. 7 train.

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” wrote the famous New England poet Robert Frost. Certainly that is an apt description of the attitude many fundamentalist Christians have developed toward the “wall of separation” between church and state. Many Christian leaders and organizations have adopted the position that the concept of separation of church and state was never intended by the Founding Fathers and is an impediment to the righteous, godly society they are intending to create in America. As Jerry Falwell states on his Web site, “I can honestly say that I feel the leading of the Holy Spirit to answer that call and to once again mobilize people of faith to reclaim this great country as ‘one nation under God.’”

Take a cursory walk through any bookstore today and you can’t help noticing the antithetical positions that the Bill of Rights was either a concoction of missionaries posing as politicians or that it was the development of rationalists seeking to eliminate religion from public life altogether.

A famous historian once said that if Washington had been resurrected in Lincoln’s time, he would not have found it very different from his own day. Clothing styles might have changed a little; some of the laws and customs might be new, but in the main, there would be no real divergence of culture and way of life. But if Washington or Lincoln were res­urrected in our day and placed in our culture, either one would probably collapse from sheer inability to keep up with us. America is breeding a hearty people; we must be hearty to keep up with this amazing pace.