From the WSJ Opinion Archives
THE WESTERN FRONT
Sermons on Liberty
Faith helped build democracy here. Can it do the same in the Muslim world?
A few days before July 4, 1787, Benjamin Franklin rose in the Constitutional Convention and, with a few words, likely saved the republic. The war with the British was won, but the monumental task of creating a workable federal government was floundering. The delegates were at an impasse and would likely disband.
So Franklin, a deist, asked the convention to do three things: pray, name a chaplain to open each day's proceedings and call a three day recess, so the delegates could seek the Lord's guidance and then informally meet.
The rest is history. After the recess, the delegates were able to hammer out the Constitution. But even the greatest gathering of minds in American history needed help. A republic conceived in liberty wasn't possible without God.
Today we are told the opposite is true. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in ruling the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, said American liberty isn't possible "under God." This, after decades of pushing God out of public classrooms and off Texas high school football fields. What's more, America is now at war with a band of religious fanatics. From Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia we're told that one lesson is clear: A religious society is an oppressive one.
But there's another example Americans should consider, the founding of our own republic. The groundwork for the Revolution was laid by the Great Awakening--a religious revival sparked by the itinerate preaching of George Whitefield in the 1720s that burned over the colonies for decades. By the 1770s, religious leaders were preaching that the king and Parliament were on the side of the devil. In the words of one Connecticut preacher, "The choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people, by God's own allowance."
In the 1770s, morality and religion played a crucial role in the founders' thinking as they built a free republic. In many ways religion was the philosophical starting point, for without God, man does not have a fundamental claim on his freedom. He's forced to rationalize on utilitarian grounds why he should be free. As we saw with communism, there are those who argue society is better off if the individual is not free. It's not a coincidence that communists expelled the church whenever they could. Congress added "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 precisely to set America apart from the godless communists.
The Declaration of Independence posits that men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." Liberty comes from God, so the colonists need only to argue that the king is undermining freedom. The document goes on to list in great detail exactly how the king was doing that: cutting off trade, stopping immigration, using foreign mercenaries and Indians to wage war on the colonists, levying taxes without consent and so on.
This theory of liberty extended into the realm of law itself. For without the rule of law, people would live under the tyranny of fear. So in the Declaration Jefferson also listed numerous examples of king-supported lawlessness: refusing to assent to new and necessary laws, undermining and disbanding legislatures, forcing colonists to stand trial in far-off lands.
The founders well understood that law requires a moral component--a king could make tyranny "legal"--so morality was built into the legal structure. That was a driving force in the writing and adoption of the Virginia Declaration of Rights--the first bill of rights ever written into a constitution. The section on religious liberty reads: "All men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other." You needn't be a Christian to live in America, but Christianity offers the moral basis for civil society.
This was not a small idea relegated to a state constitution and forgotten. (It's still part of Virginia's Constitution.) Its author, George Mason, is largely unknown today, but was an influential figure in revolutionary America. As a friend and neighbor of George Washington, he frequently took the short carriage ride over to Mount Vernon to debate political issues. His declaration of rights was adopted in June 1776, in time for Jefferson to read and borrow from as he drafted the Declaration of Independence. Mason was also one of the most frequent speakers at the Constitutional Convention. And Madison would borrow from him in drafting the Bill of Rights.
The founders knew no document would long restrain a tyrant. Only a living social institution offered the hope of perpetual protection, by fastening society to fundamental moral principles. A republic needs a relatively moral populace and the constant pressure of virtuous leaders.
The construction of a moral and free society can be seen in every state constitutional convention--which often adjourned for days of prayer and openly asked for God's guidance--and in meetings of the Continental Congress. The men who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution presupposed a strong religious institution that had influence on government. That's why both houses of Congress have had chaplains since 1789.
Of course, like any institution, religion could fall prey to corruption. The founders thought of this too, so the first stone laid in the republic's religious foundation was that of tolerance. James Madison enshrined religious liberty in the First Amendment. On his gravestone, Thomas Jefferson listed the writing of Virginia's first statue providing for religious freedom as one of his three life accomplishments. These and many similar efforts throughout all 13 colonies guaranteed religious liberty, which in turn meant that religious leaders would have to rely on persuasion, not coercion, to win people over.
While religion may be a necessary condition for democracy, it certainly isn't a sufficient one. In the Muslim world, sectarian governments like those of Saudi Arabia and Iran use religious "law" as a pretext for oppression. Secular governments in Iraq and Syria are just as oppressive.
Last week President Bush set forth a vision of democracy for the Islamic world. Addressing "the people of Muslim countries," the president proclaimed: "Your commitments to morality and learning and tolerance lead to great historical achievements, and those values are alive in the Islamic world today. . . . Prosperity and freedom and dignity are not just American hopes or Western hopes, they are universal human hopes."
Muslims who share these aspirations might consider studying America's founding documents and the sermons of the Great Awakening. If they do, they might take heed of Nathaniel Niles's warning in "Two Sermons on Liberty," published in 1774: "God gave us liberty and we have enslaved our fellow men. May we not fear that the law of retaliation is about to be executed upon us?"
Mr. Miniter is assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com. His column appears Mondays.
