On May 30, 2006, at the "Guantian Tea House" forum in China, the article "The Essence of America" by Brother Yu was published. The purpose of this article is to analyze the cultural environment and ideals of the United States and how it affects American foreign policy. After this article was published, it caused heated discussions in China. This article only introduces the point of view in the article that discusses the establishment of the United States as a Christian nation, omitting the main diplomatic arguments in the article. (Author's note: The following are the views of the article "The Nature of America".)
To understand American culture, society, politics, and diplomacy, one must understand the mainstream religion in the United States, namely Protestantism, and especially the Puritan thought. America appears to be a secular value and social system, but it actually originated from Protestant values and the Reformation, and embodies the Protestant beliefs.
1. The surface secular, the real religion
The so-called secularization refers to a state in which a country has been freed from religious influence or shackles in politics, economy, society and people's psychology. Its main manifestations are:
1) Separation of politics and religion.
2) Citizens have absolute freedom of belief.
3) Social life is not bound by religious precepts.
The principles of separation of church and state and freedom of belief actually originated from the primitive Christian teachings in the time of Jesus and took shape from the teachings of modern Christian Protestantism. Therefore, the separation of church and state and freedom of belief, although considered to be the characteristics of secularized countries in the world today, actually came from the Christian Reformation.
Separation of church and state, freedom of belief, and the luxury of life and the pursuit of material things, etc., make most people think that the United States is an extremely secular society, the mainstream of American culture is secularism and secular hedonism, and the true Christian faith in the United States has declined.
But in essence, the United States is a very religious country, and Protestantism plays a leading role in the country's political life, social life, and national psychology.
The moral ethics of American society is Christian ethics. Tocqueville, a famous French writer and statesman, said: "There is no country in the world that maintains such a great influence of Christianity on people's souls as the United States. In addition, no country can prove the utility and humanity of Christ like the United States. This country is the most enlightened and freest country in the world."
American scholar Sandos said in the book "The Government of Law": "The American spirit expressed by the Declaration of Independence originated in the Great Awakening Movement of the 1830s."
Marsden also said: "The great religious revival of the eighteenth century provided a bridge between the Puritans and the democratic revolution."
America started with the Puritans. The Puritans particularly emphasized voter consciousness and mission, and emphasized the transformative role of Christians in society. Puritan thought, basically inherited the teachings of Calvinism, believed that Christians were chosen by God to glorify God and enlighten the world, and had the responsibility to improve society.
On top of this, the Puritans accepted the post-millennial idea, that is, Christians should transform society, transform the world, and establish Christ's millennial kingdom to welcome Christ's second coming. This is the main source of American destiny consciousness.
The American Declaration of Independence was deeply influenced by Protestantism. The founding father of the United States appealed to God for the legitimacy of the founding of the country, and to the Protestant ideas of "natural human rights" and "sovereignty in the people", as well as the idea of "government for the people". The ideas of human rights, freedom, and democracy in modern times actually originated from the Christian Reformation and the Protestant doctrines formed later, and originated from the Protestants' understanding and interpretation of the Bible.
Some people trace the American spirit of independence to the natural law thought of Europe, and think that the ideological origin of the Declaration of Independence can be found from natural law scholars such as Locke and Rousseau. The natural law thought of Locke and others actually originated from Christianity.
2. Two historical examples
The American Civil War, which achieved the reunification of the North and the South, laid the foundation for today's America, actually had profound religious reasons.
Ostensibly, the war broke out because the separatists in the South were trying to secede from the Union. But the deeper reason is that American Christians hate slavery in the South, causing the North and South to confront each other. The Civil War was a war between abolitionism and slavery, a war between Christianity, which had a tradition of abolitionism, and a system of enslavement. "Northerners tend to equate the advance of the Union army with the advance of Christ's kingdom," Marsden said.
Second, the largest civil rights movement in American history was Martin. Luther. King's black civil rights movement. Martin. Luther. The reason for King's success is that he did not look for the basis of the civil rights movement from secularization theory, but from Christian ideas, so that the civil rights movement was completely consistent with the American Christian national ideology, and called for the universality of American society. resonance.
The practice of Christian philosophy
The scenes shown in American movies are not the real America. That's just a few artists who broke away from Christianity, reflecting part of American life. American former "Time Magazine" reporter, famous writer David. "Mainstream newspapers, journals and magazines in the United States do not reflect the religious fervor of the American interior. Popular entertainment shows do not reflect the image of American piety," Eckman said. Because "Hollywood, the powerful media, academic centers and Most of the important financial infrastructure is controlled by people who have renounced religion, or at least the Christian faith."
Chinese scholars have called the strong secularity and the equally strong religiousness of American society as "the symbiosis of the omnipresent religious belief and the secular spirit", which is "a common phenomenon that puzzles religious scholars." Fetishism, Paradoxically Combining with Prominent Religion". In fact, this understanding, description and definition are all wrong.
We can also see that in today’s secularized countries, the secularized concepts of diligence, savings, dedication, and pursuit of wealth, which are considered materialistic, actually originated from the modern Christian reform, as the sociologist Weber argued. . Not only the separation of church and state, freedom of belief and other systems originated in Christianity, in fact, the mode of production of modern capitalism is also believed by scholars to originate from Christian reform.
4. Sources of Democracy and Other Ideas
It was the Reformation that broke the situation in the Middle Ages that groups suppressed individuals and gave rise to a sense of "individual". The emergence of "individual" consciousness has prompted the emergence of human rights thought and individualism. Individualism first subverted the traditional relationship between the state and the individual since human history. Secondly, individualism subverts the traditional relationship between the government and the people, and provides a rational basis for democracy. Third, individualism gave birth to the principle of separation of powers in democratic systems.
American Christians follow the logic that people glorify God, so people should improve themselves. This self-improvement includes self-cultivation and self-realization. Especially for self-realization, people should rely on themselves and freely realize themselves, rather than rely on others, parents or relatives.
Human rights and freedoms also imply human responsibilities. Respecting the freedom and rights of others means respecting your own rights and freedoms.
The above is the article "The Essence of America", which is about the view of "the United States was founded by Christianity". The author believes that these views are very worth exploring, and I have written a special article "Also on the Nature of the United States" (please see the next part) to discuss with you.
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_639419120102w9ur.html