I have sometimes asked Americans whom I chanced to meet...whether in their opinion religion contributes to the stability of the state and the maintenance of law and order. They always answered, without a moments hesitation, that a civilized community, especially one that enjoys the benefits of freedom, cannot exist without religion.
Alexis de'Toqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. 1
I doubt not that all the infidels and heretics of the world would, if they could, confine honor to their own absurd errors and damnable deceptions. But when I mention religion, I mean the Christian religion, and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion, and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England. And when I mention honor, I mean that mode of divine grace which is not only consistent with, but is dependent upon this religion and is consistent with and dependent upon no other.
Parson Thwackum, from Henry Fielding's Tom Jones
RELIGION AND A JUST SOCIETY
William F Harrison, M.D.
I assume that when he wrote of "a civilized community...that enjoys the benefits of freedom," de'Toqueville was thinking of a "just society." Pre-Revolutionary France boasted a highly cultured community and one of early Nazi Germany's greatest strengths was law and order, but neither of these are considered noble examples of a Just Society . The average American today would very probably make much the same response if asked the same question that de'Toqueville put to the Americans of his day. Certainly people like Bill Bennett, Pat Robertson, Patrick Buchanan and others even less ideologically pure, have been heard to make similar statements. Presumably most who make these remarks consider themselves good citizens and honorable persons. People who make these observations are usually deeply religious and many of these believe that an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-encompassing deity will punish every unrepented misdeed.
I do not accept the notion that the average good citizen is a good citizen and an honorable person only because he/she believes that there is heavenly reward for good service and a hellish punishment for bad deeds, or solely because he/she accepts a certain religious dogma. I do not believe that the honorable citizens of our country are so corruptible that if there were no threat of the loss of heaven or a sentence to the fires of hell, that all, or even most of them, would become outlaws interested only in self to the detriment of all others. Indeed, given the stentorian religious pronouncements of many of history's ruling monsters as well as most of our current and recent crop of GOPocrites controling the U.S House and Senate for much of the last three decades, it would seem that religion has been inimical to a just society at least as often as it has been availing.
Some of history's most infamous fiends have been irreligious - some atheistic - but this seems to be a phenomenon mostly of the 20th century, with the notable 18th century exception of those paragons of blood-lust who perverted the French revolution. In the 20th century, the outrages committed in the name of Communism come immediately to mind. Those of the Nazis don't fall under this category, since they were ostensibly Christian. Remember the SS's belt buckel with the "Got Mit Uns" slogan? (Sounds much like the 40 Days Of Life folks saying God is with them.) The brutalities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army, whose leaders were chiefly Shinto; and those of the Allies in WWII who bombed and burned tens of thousand of cities and towns, killing and maiming millions of women and children and old people in that same war, most of the American bombers calling themselves Christians. Most frequently, in both the ancient and modern history of the world, atrocities perpetrated by governments, institutions and individuals, have been initiated and carried out by people who consider(ed) themselves Christian, Muslim, Hindu (or one of its many offshoots) or Jew, just to name a few of the religions currently professed in this country. Indeed, many of these offenses against humanity have been executed (a word not idly chosen) in the name of the religion being practiced by those committing the crimes, some even at the urging of their religious as well as military leaders. (Often the two were the same.)
Most of us would probably agree that a firm moral sense and a strong and honored ethical code are desirable. Indeed, most would probably find such a code necessary to raise good children who will grow up to be honest and decent adults and become honorable citizens capable of helping to create amd/or maintain a just society. But does a moral sense and ethical code - of necessity - derive from the acceptance of a "religious idea?" Even of a specific theology?
It is patently demonstrable that it does not! Some of the most moral individuals in history, and in my personal acquaintance, have been, or are, basically non-religious, irreligious, atheistic, even anti-religious, or of a completely different religious faith from that professed by Bennett, Robertson, Buchanan, et al. And I suspect that Bennett, et al, like Parson Thwackum, would insist that the religion must be Christianity; if not, as in Parson Thwackum's case, the Church of England, then another of Christianity's numerous divisions.
I, like a majority of Americans, derived my moral sense and a major part of my ethical code from the teachings of my parents and my church. I continue to honor the greatest part of those moral and ethical teachings instilled in me as a child. But I no longer can, in good faith, accept any of the purely religious mythologies that I absorbed, almost with the air I breathed and the food I ate, in my parents' home. And though I have not accepted much of the non-ethical baggage of my father's religion for the last sixty plus years, I have continued to try to be what I consider a good citizen, supporting the life and morals of my family, my community and our country. AND IT IS BECAUSE OF MY MORAL CODE THAT I CONTINUE TO PROVIDE ABORTION CARE AND SERVICES TO MY PATIENTS IN THE FACE OF SUPPOSEDLY "GOD" INSPIRED OPPOSITION TO MY PRACTICE BY MANY CALLING THEMSELVES CHRISTIANS!
I wonder if Mr.'s Bennett, Buchanan, Robertson, and all the others who make such statements, would be so easily corrupted that they would not act in a similar fashion should they overcome their credulity concerning their Christian mythology?