{"id":55709,"date":"2024-07-16T11:10:03","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T15:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=55709"},"modified":"2024-07-16T11:10:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T15:10:03","slug":"the-cord-that-holds-us-together-is-fraying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=55709","title":{"rendered":"The Cord That Holds Us Together Is Fraying"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 10th, The Federalist<\/a> posted an article about the current disunity in America. The title of the article is, “America\u2019s Conflicts Are Not Primarily Political Or Ideological, But Religious.” That is an interesting premise.<\/p>\n

The author observes:<\/p>\n

Because America, like all nations, is founded on religious claims, and relies on those claims for its coherence. We\u2019ve long been accustomed to talking about America as a \u201cpropositional nation,\u201d a phrase taken from Abraham Lincoln\u2019s famous line in the Gettysburg Address that America was \u201cdedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea is that America is fundamentally different from the ethnic nation-states of Europe, which were based on blood and soil and religion. America supposedly transcended all that. It was based instead on an idea \u2014 a proposition. Anyone could become an American if he agreed to the proposition.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

And this is true. But nearly everyone who says America is a propositional nation is wrong about\u00a0what the proposition is<\/em>. America is not a collection of Enlightenment tropes at the intersection of Locke and Rousseau, a grab bag of philosophical sentiments about the rights of man. America is the creation of Christian civilization.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The proposition at the heart of America, undergirding our nation\u2019s existence, is not just \u201call men are created,\u201d but\u00a0Christianity and all that comes with it<\/em>. Without Christianity, you don\u2019t get free speech, liberty, equality, freedom of conscience. All of it relies on the claims of the Christian faith, none of it stands on its own.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article goes on to explain the problems with accepting the trappings of Christianity without accepting the basics of the faith–the deity and sacrifice of Jesus.<\/p>\n

The article notes:<\/p>\n

Some will acknowledge the Christian inheritance of America but insist that it\u2019s a point of departure, that once the American experiment was launched, it could be safely separated from the religion that launched it. They think it\u2019s possible to take the \u201cbest\u201d parts of the Christian faith without the need to continually affirm Christ. \u201cChristless Christianity,\u201d you might call it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t work like that. A few months ago the famous atheist Richard Dawkins wondered aloud in an interview<\/a> why his own country, England, could not just go on having \u201ccultural Christianity\u201d without actual, believing Christians. He said he liked the cathedrals and the Christmas carols, and would like to enjoy them without the bother of actual Christianity. He wants fewer\u00a0believing<\/em>\u00a0Christians and more\u00a0cultural<\/em>\u00a0Christians.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It never occurred to Dawkins that you don\u2019t get to keep the culture without the cult. The sad spectacle of modern England should suffice to prove the point. If there is no one to worship in the cathedrals, they will become concert halls or, in England\u2019s case, mosques. If no one really believes what the Christmas carols proclaim, eventually people will stop singing them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please follow the link to read the entire article.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 10th, The Federalist posted an article about the current disunity in America. The title of the article is, “America\u2019s Conflicts Are Not Primarily Political Or Ideological, But Religious.” That is an interesting premise. The author observes: Because America, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5855,7746,16021,156,1998,5856,11815],"class_list":["post-55709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abraham-lincoln","tag-all-men-are-created-equal","tag-american-experiment","tag-christianity","tag-free-speech","tag-gettysburg-address","tag-the-federalist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55709"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55712,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55709\/revisions\/55712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}