IF THE FOUNDATIONS ARE DESTROYED
The Bible is the one ultimately authoritative book with the right answers to life’s most crucial questions. One of these questions is the following: “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3). One writer described the situation as the pillars being pulled down. The pillars, the foundations of civil society, provide for the ongoing existence and well-being of society.
Presently, there are some who have the intention of literally pulling down historical American monuments and memorials. As deeply troubling as their agenda may be, there is something more troubling, because it is more foundational. It is the efforts of those who intend to pull down what Washington called the “indispensable supports . . . great pillars . . . the foundation of the fabric” of “every species of free government” which Washington identified as religion and morality in his 1796 Farewell Address.
Washington asked, “Where is the security for property . . . for life . . . ? [How relevant is that question as one witnesses the arson, looting, and destruction of property and loss of human life resulting from anarchy?] And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. . . . [R]eason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
A few days ago, I happened to come across a 21st century statement of the implications of Washington’s 18th century warning. It came from the late Dr. Clay Christensen who died January 23, 2020, at 67, after a ten-year battle with cancer. He was a professor at Harvard University and described by The Economist as “the most influential management thinker of his time.” In a 2011 cover story, Forbes called him “one of the most influential business thinkers of the last 50 years.”
On February 8, 2011, as Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Christensen in a brief video observed: “Some time ago I had a conversation with a Marxist economist from China. He was coming to the end of a Fulbright Fellowship here in Boston, and I asked him if he had learned anything that was surprising or unexpected. And without hesitation he said, ‘Yes, I had no idea how critical religion is to the functioning of democracy. The reason why democracy works is not because the government was designed to oversee what everybody does. But rather democracy works because most people, most of the time, voluntarily choose to obey the law. And in your past, most Americans attended a church or synagogue every week. And they were taught there by people who they respected. Americans followed these rules because they had come to believe that they weren’t just accountable to society, they were accountable to God.’”
Professor Christensen continued: “My Chinese friend heightened a vague but nagging concern I harbored inside that as religion loses its influence over the lives of Americans, what would happen to our democracy? Where are the institutions that are going to teach the next generation of Americans that they too need to voluntarily choose to obey the laws? Because if you take away religion, you can’t hire enough police!”
This reminds one of the acceptance speech for the 1983 Templeton Prize. Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “. . . [W]hile I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this happened.”
America, are you listening?
Charles C. Pugh III
Executive Director