| For those who don't already know, the culture wars taking place in Texas' State Board of Education have moved a bit from attacking our science classes to ridiculing the idea of a proper social studies education. The latest event in this fight was a Don McLeroy response to The American Humanist Association, which advocates education without theism. Mr. McLeroy responded by including an essay he had written and a video of an interview he had with Fox News.
His essay actually reads intelligently. He starts by praising the West and defining the freedoms that have become apparent in many places of the West:
The West has relieved human suffering to a unprecedented degree; the West has developed freedom to a unparalleled level, both in freedom of coercion by other men and in freedom of opportunity to rise above one's original station in life. This is demonstrated by an incredible standard of living where even its "poor" are rich by global standards. It is also seen in the full political rights of all and the accepted idea of equality of all-including women and minorities.
This idea has a lot of merit, but McLeroy acts as if this "freedom" that has been discovered in the West has barely ventured beyond the West, and certainly not among un-Christian countries. So, he continues:
We must look at the indisputable historical facts without the fear of being labeled ethnocentric. Where in the modern world do we find freedom? Freedom, as we know it, can be found in Europe-before and after the totalitarians, in England, Canada, the United States, parts of Latin America, and parts of the Pacific Rim. It is never found in the ancient world, though Athens and the Roman Republic came closest. It is never found in the rest of the modern world. Freedom is unique to the areas of the world that have been touched by Christianity.
The emphasis is mine -- for it is surely a conclusion that McLeroy comes to only with scant research. So, let me continue for him. To look at "the indisputable historical facts without the fear of being labeled ethnocentric," I will use some normal qualifications to determine if a country has "freedom of coercion by other men" and "freedom of opportunity to rise above one's original situation in life" - essentially, political freedom, economic freedom, and economic sustainability. I will consider a country "free" under these standards: the country must be labeled free by Freedom House and must, in all three sets of data here, have a GDP per capita above the World Average.
Unsurprisingly, I find a few non-Christian countries that Don McLeroy must have missed in his research, such as Israel, Japan, and Estonia. These are not simply exceptions to the rule -- they are countries of very diverse religious backgrounds that have achieved freedom, apparently from something else other than freedom. Christianity is clearly a part of our history, but it is not the force that allowed freedom to blossom in this world.
In his interview with Fox News, McLeroy talked about the Declaration of Independence. Surely, a document referring to our creator must point towards a basis in Christianity, right? Once again, McLeroy only knows the surface of the details.
Thomas Jefferson, as a historian on him would know, was greatly influenced by John Locke when writing the Declaration. So, his slight mention of our creator was probably derived from Locke's mentions of God. I'm sure Mr. McLeroy knows this. Only, Locke wrote his Second Treatise of Government using God only as a rhetorical tool to hide his true wishes for a much more secular society. The fact that the Declaration of Independence mentions God [only] one time does not show that our government was based at all in Christianity, but instead that Thomas Jefferson did not feel quite as much need as Locke to appeal to Christians in his argument for freedom.
All of the above said; I would not mind Christianity being discussed at times in our history classrooms. But when discussing the founding of our democracy; thought, rationality, bravery, and determination are much better vantage points. |
