To answer Pilate’s question honestly would require a person to address their behavior, sins and shortcomings directly and accept accountability for them. Most people will do almost anything to avoid that.
To name the Lord as our inspiration is risky business, from a contemporary human-political point of view. Witness the recent antagonism from the vitalists, some of Christianity's most influential potential allies on the right. That's no cause for cowardice, though; "fear not!" God tells his people over and over.
America was founded on two principles -- the WASP ethnostate, and the secular enlightened republic. For much of its history, the ethnostate dominated, but the balance tipped over into secular Enlightenment values in the mid-20th century. Throughout this history, Christianity has been an uncertain middleman, playing a key role in social cohesion, yet not securely fitting into either conception of America. Christianity preaches universalism, as does Enlightenment philosophy, which is undeniably influenced by it; yet Christianity was also the chosen religion of the West, and religion often maps to ethnicity, thus the last letter of WASP stands for Protestant.
Since the mainstream right cannot openly call for a white ethnostate, Christianity would indeed serve as an excellent banner to rally around. Without that, they fall into the trap of playing the Heel to the Left's Face, that is, controlled opposition, which ultimately energizes the Left's secular ideology. Speaking of which, some churches (especially Protestant) have already been captured by the regime, but not all, so I expect religion to become a battleground in the future, especially with Islam to contend with.
Also,
"-only to be cast from Eden when they rebel and take upon themselves the attempt to act as if they were God and decide Good & Evil."
This is very on-point. There's a common misconception that Adam & Eve did not know right from wrong before the Fall, but if that were true, if they were mindless innocents, they wouldn't have even known it was wrong to disobey God! No, obviously they knew right from wrong, because God shared his judgments with them, ie human morality was originally derived from God. Rather, the Forbidden Fruit gave them the power to decide for themselves what is good & evil, to make their own judgments separately from and against God's will. Humans were never supposed to have this power of judgment, which was reserved for God -- by seizing it for themselves, they usurped the role of the higher power, rebelling against the natural hierarchy, which brought disorder into Creation and resulted in the Fall. Thus, the Original Sin was the sin of Pride, which is essentially "playing god", a sin that's still with us today.
thought provoking post! ive been thinking more about this, even at the level of natural theology as being an issue first and foremost of sovereignty. whence does it come? from the people or from God. untill this matter is settled, does it matter what name is given?
Many societies, including the British Empire, had organized state religions. But what makes America great, is her commitment to individual conscience and freedom of thought. That’s my take. Nice article.
To answer Pilate’s question honestly would require a person to address their behavior, sins and shortcomings directly and accept accountability for them. Most people will do almost anything to avoid that.
To name the Lord as our inspiration is risky business, from a contemporary human-political point of view. Witness the recent antagonism from the vitalists, some of Christianity's most influential potential allies on the right. That's no cause for cowardice, though; "fear not!" God tells his people over and over.
America was founded on two principles -- the WASP ethnostate, and the secular enlightened republic. For much of its history, the ethnostate dominated, but the balance tipped over into secular Enlightenment values in the mid-20th century. Throughout this history, Christianity has been an uncertain middleman, playing a key role in social cohesion, yet not securely fitting into either conception of America. Christianity preaches universalism, as does Enlightenment philosophy, which is undeniably influenced by it; yet Christianity was also the chosen religion of the West, and religion often maps to ethnicity, thus the last letter of WASP stands for Protestant.
Since the mainstream right cannot openly call for a white ethnostate, Christianity would indeed serve as an excellent banner to rally around. Without that, they fall into the trap of playing the Heel to the Left's Face, that is, controlled opposition, which ultimately energizes the Left's secular ideology. Speaking of which, some churches (especially Protestant) have already been captured by the regime, but not all, so I expect religion to become a battleground in the future, especially with Islam to contend with.
Also,
"-only to be cast from Eden when they rebel and take upon themselves the attempt to act as if they were God and decide Good & Evil."
This is very on-point. There's a common misconception that Adam & Eve did not know right from wrong before the Fall, but if that were true, if they were mindless innocents, they wouldn't have even known it was wrong to disobey God! No, obviously they knew right from wrong, because God shared his judgments with them, ie human morality was originally derived from God. Rather, the Forbidden Fruit gave them the power to decide for themselves what is good & evil, to make their own judgments separately from and against God's will. Humans were never supposed to have this power of judgment, which was reserved for God -- by seizing it for themselves, they usurped the role of the higher power, rebelling against the natural hierarchy, which brought disorder into Creation and resulted in the Fall. Thus, the Original Sin was the sin of Pride, which is essentially "playing god", a sin that's still with us today.
thought provoking post! ive been thinking more about this, even at the level of natural theology as being an issue first and foremost of sovereignty. whence does it come? from the people or from God. untill this matter is settled, does it matter what name is given?
Many societies, including the British Empire, had organized state religions. But what makes America great, is her commitment to individual conscience and freedom of thought. That’s my take. Nice article.