I talk often to my son in England. He reports that British liberal news people think our President is a villain and a scoundrel. Mr. Bush isn't fighting El Qaeda to counter international terrorism but rather to get American hands on more oil resources. Some tabloid papers accuse our population of gobbling up the world's raw materials with hedonistic abandon. I contrast these journalists with the Englishman Gilbert Keith Chesterton, a Catholic Philosopher of last century. In 1922 he published: "What I saw in America." I won't review it here, but I'll introduce you to his thoughts via a few quotations. In them you will be reminded of ideas once very prevalent in America. We begin with: "The unconscious democracy of America is a very fine thing." Chesterton saw there was an unforced democracy that was part of the American mindset. He saw a set of values here that were the foundation for our political and religious life. G.K. continues: "It is a true and deep and instinctive assumption of the equality of citizens," and then he quips: "which even voting and elections have not destroyed." The people of the USA hold that all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law. Sadly our history has many instances of inequality that were not known to Chesterton. After the 1960s our schools adopted a philosophy for science classes that, by its practical outworking, contradicts the idea of inherent equality. The theory of evolution says one species or even various subspecies will overpower the others in a struggle to prosper. It applauds the survival of the fittest. If this were all true any laws that protect the weak would be an attempt to hinder the "progress" of the human race. Narrow mindedly scientific textbooks allow only the evolutionary explanation of the origin of life. In chapter 19, Chesterton said: "The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they would certainly have evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man." Wow, what an insight! Revisionists try to alter our picture of American history. The "get God out of schools" quibblers fret and fume, but there will always be a reminder in the Declaration that our founders believed in a Creator God who made humans equal. It caused this philosopher to add: "America is the only country ever founded on a creed." Cease to believe that God created us and someday you'll stop believing in human equality. This, the most powerful nation on earth, began with a set of beliefs. Another 20th Century observer noted that the moral strength of the American people was their Sunday diet of Biblical preaching. Hunterdon County is blessed with many preachers who consider the Bible Divinely inspired. 2 Peter 1 vs 19-21 (God's book about humanity not just our book about God.) What if some desert the scriptures? What if our citizens vote God's laws out of daily life? It might happen. Chesterton observed: "Once (you) abolish the God, the government becomes the god." American democracy originated with the belief that a God-fearing people, raised from knee high with the selfless laws of the scriptures can be trusted to vote wisely. Where that changes, a vacuum requiring larger and more intrusive government arises. Here's a word for secular humanists desiring to rid our country of the laws of God. They envision a "freedom" whereby all Americans can have their own form of morality. I feel they are saying: "Get your god out of my face and let me make the laws that will suite the modern mind." Chesterton perceived this trend in his own country. He wrote: "When you abandon the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy." You get the small laws."
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