Can a healthy democracy exist without a faith grounded in morality and reason that provides for the common good? Alexis deTocqueville was a 19th century French aristocrat who visited America in the 1830s and wrote Democracy in America. He asserted that morality in a democracy could not exist without a religion such as Christianity.
The greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions is a universal standard of the common good. It was taken from the Hebrew Bible and taught by Jesus, and it has been accepted by Muslim scholars as a common word of faith; but only a minority of Jews, Christians and Muslims accept its moral imperative in their faith and politics.
Thomas Jefferson was a child of the Enlightenment whose politics were based on faith and reason. He considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever devised by man,” and his views were acclaimed by The Jesus Seminar. Jefferson was a slaveholder who opposed the institution of slavery, but he was never able to find a political solution to end it.
I have opined on the relationship between religion and morality in politics at https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/ and on my Facebook page. Since 2016 things have gone from bad to worse. America’s politics have confirmed Winston Churchill’s opinion that democracy is the worst form of government--except for all the others.
History has confirmed that human depravity is inherent in human nature. For American democracy to promote the common good, a majority of its people must be committed to promote the altruistic and universal moral imperative of the greatest commandment. Only then can America hope for peace and justice for all; and that may be wishful thinking.
As a nonpartisan in politics, I can’t relate to either Trump’s Republicans or to Democrats led by Harris. Both parties have ignored the fiscal restraints required by America’s $35 trillion national deficit, jeopardizing the economic stability and common good of America’s future--with the dark specter of a bitcoin currency now threatening the stability of the dollar.
In her first economic policy speech, Harris promoted child care tax credits and ignored the economic reforms needed to reform Social Security and Medicare and control America’s massive national debt; and she did not mention the two datapoints that concern most Americans: the higher prices left over from the pandemic, and decreased personal savings.
Hopefully, voters can change the trajectory of American politics by making the common good their top political priority. It must include fiscal responsibility for America’s massive national debt, preserving the dollar, and reforming social security and Medicare over partisan objectives. That’s the only way to save our democracy and the dollar from their current demise.
Notes:
On the Greatest Commandment as a Common Word of Faith, see http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/the-greatest-commandment-common-word-of.html.
Thomas Jefferson considered “the teachings of Jesus as the most sublime moral code ever designed by man,” and he also detested exclusivist church doctrines. https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com.
In 1831 Alexis deTocqueville toured America and observed that its many Christian sects shared a “Christian morality” that produced common standards of political legitimacy that defined what is right, and imbued American politics with its moral authority. On the views of Thomas Jefferson and Alexis de Tocqueville on the moral values of religion in American politics, see Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy (July 1, 2017) at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-moral-authority-and.html. See also Musings of a Maverick Methodist on a Universal and Altruistic Jesus, August 19, 2023, at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.
Carl Krieg has distinguished between The Political [exclusivist] Jesus and The Real [universal] Jesus at https://progressivechristianity.org/resource/the-political-jesus-and-the-real-jesus/.
The Washington Post Editorial Board is normally reluctant to criticize leaders of the Democratic Party, but it has referred to Harris’ priorities in her most recent speech on economic policy as gimmicks that avoid serious economic ideas. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/16/harris-economy-plan-gimmicks/?utm_campaign=wp_todays_headlines&utm_medium=email&utm.
On the two data points of increasing costs and reduced savings in America’s economy, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/19/biden-harris-economy-savings-debt-inflation-pain/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm.
James Carville has discussed How the Democrats can win on the economy, at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/20/opinion/kamala-harris-dnc-james-carville.html.
A volatile bitcoin “currency” now threatens the stability of the dollar with speculation on a BRICS alternative to the dollar. See https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/08/21/institutions-are-coming-35-trillion-us-dollar-collapse-predicted-to-trigger-a-bitcoin-price-boom-to-rival-gold.
Universalism can reconcile progressive Christians, Jews and Muslims. While universalists are a minority among Jews, Christians and Muslims, they can be a reconciling voice promoting a common word of faith in those competing religions. On universalism, see Universalism: A theology for the 21st century, by Forrest Church, November 5, 2001, at Universalism: A theology for the 21st century | UU World Magazine.
On the few remaining universalist Christians, see https://christianuniversalist.org/.
On the belief that God saves only Christians and condemns all unbelievers to hell, see Hell No! at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/hell-no.html.
On Religion and Reason, see
The Teachings of Jesus and Muhammad on Morality and Law is an interfaith study guide based on the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad taken from The Jefferson Bible. It’s posted in its entirety in the Resources at https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com.
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