Faith, Love, and Public Influence
Tocqueville recognized, with acute insight, a great deal of the genius of Christianity in America. Writing in the 1830s …
“[I]n America religion has, as it were, laid down its own limits. Religious institutions have remained wholly distinct from political institutions, so that former laws have been easily changed while former belief has remained unshaken. Christianity has therefore retained a strong hold on the public mind in America …The Americans, having admitted the principal doctrines of the Christian religion without inquiry, are obliged to accept in like manner a great number of moral truths originating in and connected with it.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 2 (New York: Vintage, 1990) 6.
“A strong hold on the public mind,” “a great number of moral truths,” “former belief has remained unshaken …”
Obviously, things have changed a bit since when Tocqueville wrote. Just as obviously, American Christianity bears as much a share of the blame as does American anti-Christianity.
For example, something is badly broken with the way we practice our faith when one of our most vocal voices of contemporary American atheism, Sam Harris, finds that the most hate-filled attacks against him come from Bible-quoting (so-called) Christians. Thus, he writes:
“Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ’s love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse.”
If our faith is what we say it is, hatred has no place in it. Hatred is grounded in fear, and we know that there is no fear in true faith. Likewise, there is no need to grasp for power. No need to dominate or control others. We are already grounded on The Rock. What more do we need?
May we rediscover our faith afresh, recover our confidence, and regain the influence we could wield if we dealt with our neighbors — including our unbelieving neighbors — as we should.
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