Grass-Roots Morality
mohammad
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear another case on the public display
of the Ten Commandments. However the court rules, it won't solve the
problem.
I believe the federal courts have erred in banning religious displays
from the public commons. I believe they erred when they forced the 50
states to legalize abortion. I understand the nostalgia of a lot of
Americans for a more moral society. But that more moral society cannot
be established by court rulings, laws or public displays of religious
symbols.
Morality, like true democracy, must exist at the grass-roots level. A
wise Chinese sage said a long time ago that a strong country begins
with strong families. If families taught respect for life, all of the
abortion clinics would go out of business; if families were moral,
there would be no market for profitable immorality in the form of
pornography and sleazy movies and television shows. If the families
were religious, it wouldn't matter whether there were public displays
of religious symbols.
There is a line in the excellent movie Rob Roy in which hero of the
film tells his son, "Honor is a gift a man gives to himself." In other
words, if you decide to live an honorable life regardless of the
consequences, there is nothing anybody can do to stop you. The same is
true of religious faith and morality. If you decide to believe in God
and to follow the precepts of your faith, there is nothing the
government can do to stop you. A government far more cruel and ruthless
than ours once tried to stamp out Christianity and failed.
Religious people in the U.S. have been victimized by politicians and
lawyers. Vote for this guy, litigate this issue, and the world will be
OK again. To use religious symbols, this is just old Satan wearing a
new disguise and promising the world for votes and money. He will take
the votes and the money, but he won't deliver what he promises. In the
meantime, the religious people neglect what they should be doing, which
is changing society by the example of their lives.
Even my libertarian friends sometimes slip into the trap of believing
that people have less freedom than they actually do. Every human being
has complete freedom of conscience. You can believe what you like and
even do what you like as long as you are willing to accept the
consequences. If you are not willing to pay the price for your beliefs,
you have only yourself to blame.
Any significant change in this country must start in the hearts and
minds of individuals; move from there to families, from families to
communities, from communities to states, from states to regions, and
only then to the imperial palaces on the Potomac River. Litigation and
legislation cannot produce any significant change. They can only nibble
on the fringes and deal with mechanical problems.
What we should fear most is the great fog of passivity that has settled
over the country. Too many of us passively accept whatever the
politicians say; too many passively accept whatever decadent
entertainment the small group that controls that industry serves up to
us; too many of us passively accept rude behavior, poor service and
shoddy products.
America was once a nation of strong, outspoken individuals. You cannot
bring about significant reform if you are committed to being
politically correct and are afraid of making waves. Political
correctness is a strategy to control you, as is the claim that you
should never offend anybody.
I don't know if the American people can find it in themselves to change
the direction of the country. The people in some countries have revived
their nation's fortunes, and the people in other countries have not.
Rome did not fall in a day. It gradually rotted from the inside.
We should avoid the trap of believing we are a chosen people. We are
not. We are a lucky people, the beneficiaries of a bunch of bold, often
rapacious ancestors who seized the fattest part of the North American
continent and fought off everybody who tried to take it away from them.
Politics and litigation were not the answer then, and they are not the
answer today.
June 28, 2005
Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years, reporting on
everything from sports to politics. From 1969 to 1971, he worked as a
campaign staffer for gubernatorial, senatorial and congressional races
in several states. He was an editor, assistant to the publisher, and
columnist for the Orlando Sentinel from 1971 to 2001. He now writes a
syndicated column which is carried on LewRockwell.com. Reese served two
years active duty in the U.S. Army as a tank gunner. Write to Charley
Reese at P.O. Box 2446, Orlando, FL 32802.