OPINION:
Democrats can’t seem to figure out whether they want to use the government to drive Christianity underground or just replace the biblical version with fake Christianity.
These aren’t mutually exclusive goals; either one brings America closer to a secular, socialist state whose unofficial religion is atheism.
Democratic presidential contenders like former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, California Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg invoke Christianity to shill for taxpayer-funded, unrestricted abortion and the family values of Sodom, plus confiscation of wealth and redistribution. Note to the media: Why aren’t Democrats and Republicans being asked what they think of Drag Queen Story Hour? Anyone?
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the Democratic National Committee adopted a resolution on Aug. 24 hailing the “religiously unaffiliated” as the “largest religious group within the Democratic Party, growing from 19% in 2007 to one in three today.”
That’s great news for those Democrats who would love to replace worship of God with worship of the state.
The DNC resolution declares “that morals, values, and patriotism are not unique to any particular religion, and are not necessarily reliant on having a religious worldview at all.”
Really? So, where did American morals and values come from? The DNC might want to try to identify areas of the world not influenced by Christianity or Judaism that have nonetheless embraced the sanctity of life, individual rights, free markets, self-government and women’s rights.
They’ll be looking for a long time.
Many nonbelievers are patriotic, have strong personal integrity and strong opinions. But the moralistic language they use is derived from the very faiths that they claim have no value. If everyone has his or her own “truth,” and everything is relative, who can say what’s right or wrong?
The Declaration of Independence credits God as the source of justice, stating that, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Likewise, as John Adams wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
That’s because the U.S. Constitution’s design for maximum human liberty works only when the people have a moral compass beyond their own appetites. Absent that, we can rationalize anything.
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports,” George Washington wrote in his Farewell Address. “And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.”
Based on concepts enshrined in British Common Law, which the great English jurist William Blackstone traced to the Bible, Christians led the campaign to end the slave trade. Across the world, Christians created hospitals and clinics. They criminalized infanticide, child marriage, child and spousal abuse, gladiatorial combat, death games and immolation of widows, to name a few reforms. Some also behaved very badly, justifying their inhumanity by misusing the Bible.
The American Revolution led to a hunger for self-governance that rocked the world. It’s not for nothing that brave Chinese dissident students erected a model of the Statue of Liberty in Tiananmen Square.
The DNC’s resolution calls for “rational public policy based on sound science and universal humanistic values.” Science is, indeed, marvelous. But there’s no acknowledgment that the scientific method arose in Christian countries precisely because of the biblical view of an ordered universe with a discoverable design.
Finally, before the Democrats embrace atheism as their new-found faith, they might want to take a closer look at the surveys.
Some polls show that up to 25 percent now choose “atheist, agnostic or ’nothing in particular’” when asked about religious affiliation. However, this may be quite misleading. The Pew Research Center’s latest figures show that only 3 percent of the U.S. population identifies as atheist, notes Glenn Stanton, a researcher at Focus on the Family, in The Federalist.
“Yes, there has been a sizable increase here over the last decade, but that’s up from only 1.6 percent of all adults,” he writes. “Comparatively, if you could fit all the serious Christians in the United States on a couple of Greyhound buses, all the atheists could fit in the backseat of a Prius with room to spare.”
People who were nominal Christians in mainline denominations now describe themselves as unaffiliated, or “nones.” Meanwhile, evangelical churches are growing rapidly.
“Robust Christianity is not shrinking, not even among young adults,” Mr. Stanton writes. “It is holding quite firm and even growing in many important ways. It is increasingly liberalized, orthodoxy-denying, and lukewarm faith that’s tanking as if it has a mill stone around its neck.”
That’s something to think about when the Democrats celebrate unbelief in their midst or trot out pagan customs masquerading as Christian tolerance.
• Robert Knight is a contributor to The Washington Times.
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