History has shown us that people will turn towards a higher being when times are bad. The American economy during the past year or two has thrown millions of citizens into long-term unemployment, has caused many people to losing their homes and falling into the direct path of hardship. We have no way of knowing how many more people have turned to God, been asking for his help through prayer and also have turned to others for help. It appears that this change is reflected in a lessening of attacks against Christianity, be it in the media or by openly anti-religious zealots and fanatics. We consider this a positive development for America and are hopeful that it will stay this way for years to come.
As we did two years ago, we like to quote excerpts from a speech recently delivered by Dinesh D’Souza who authored the book: “What’s So Great About Christianity”. He stated “In recent years there has arisen a new atheism that represents a direct attack on Western Christianity. Books such as Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great and Sam Harris’ The End Of Faith, all contend that Western society would be better off if we could eradicate from it the last vestiges of Christianity. But Christianity is largely responsible for many of the principles and institutions that even secular people cherish – chief among them equality and liberty.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” he called the proposition “self-evident.” But he did not mean that it is immediately evident. It requires a certain kind of learning. And indeed most cultures throughout history, and even today, reject the proposition. This idea of the preciousness and equal worth of every human being is largely rooted in Christianity. Christians believe that God places infinite value on every human life. Christian salvation does not attach itself to a person’s family or tribe or city. It is an individual matter. And not only are Christians judged at the end of their lives as individuals, but throughout their lives they relate to God on that basis.
This aspect of Christianity had momentous consequences. Jefferson proclaimed that human equality is a gift from God: We are endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. Indeed there is no other possible source for them. And Jefferson later wrote that he was not expressing new ideas or principles when he wrote the Declaration, but was rather giving expressions to something that had become settled in the American mind. The idea of freedom is rooted in a respect for the individual. It means the right to express our opinion, the right to choose a career, the right to buy and sell property, the right to our own personal space and the right to live our own life. In return, we are responsible only to respect the rights of others. This is the freedom we are ready to fight for, and we become indignant when it is challenged or taken away. Christianity has played a vital role in the development of this concept of freedom through its doctrine that all human beings are moral agents, created in God’s image, with the ability to be the architects of their own lives.
In sum, the eradication of Christianity – and of organized religion in general -would also mean the gradual extinction of the principles of human dignity. Consider human equality. Why do we hold to it? The Christian idea of equality in God’s eyes is undeniably largely responsible. The attempt to ground respect for equality on a purely secular basis ignores the vital contribution by Christianity to its spread. It is folly to believe that it could survive without the continuing aid of religious belief. If we cherish what is distinctive about Western civilization, then – whatever our religious convictions – we should respect rather than denigrate it Christian roots.”
Common Sense University agrees with this and by celebrating the birth of Christ in a few days, we wish all of you
A Very Merry Christmas
The entire speech by Mr. Dinesh D’Souza as delivered on September 16, 2008, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Colorado Springs can be read in the November 2008 issue of Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College at www.hillsdale.edu. We have stated these excerpts with the permission of Hillsdale College.