Religion and Politics in Public Life
We live in a country whose citizenry have been, almost from the beginning of the Republic, carefully coached to observe all the requisite protocols. What that means, as a practical matter, is, quite simply, keeping religion and politics in separate compartments. In other words, Church and State must never be seen in the same room. That being the case, the very idea of a confessional society becomes an affront to both law and custom. For all the appeal it may have in theory, the actual reality of a Christian culture tends to make people nervous and unsure. Is this really something, they ask themselves, we want to organize our lives around? The prospect appears to be an unwelcome one.
This is especially true, I think, for native-born Americans, men and women whose sensibilities have been largely formed by the framers of the U.S. Constitution and the whole elaborate mythology that has grown up around it. To propose a model of governance along the lines of, say, Christopher Dawson’s vision, where faith and life go together because otherwise one is forced to live an almost schizophrenic life, provokes a certain amount of pushback. Why, it seems positively medieval. Certain disclaimers, therefore, will need to be made.
Much of the problem, it seems, turns on the word public, a pesky little thing that tends to set people on edge. And yet what the word itself signifies is something entirely natural and unavoidable; it should not in the least feel threatening to anyone. And that is the fact that every culture is nothing other than an outward sign of, an embodiment even, of faith, any faith, so long as it finds enfleshment in people’s lives. People need to see and to smell, to touch, taste, and hear the sounds of a culture. And so, what every culture consists of is nothing other than the reification of a people’s religion, which is as natural and necessary as the air we breathe.
Take that as a given, therefore, a nonneg
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
