From the WSJ Opinion Archives
FROM THE HEARTLAND
A Salute to Christmas
Americans mix church and state on their front lawns.
The Christmas lights and decorations adorn the houses up and down the block from our house. But one has the sense that this isn't the usual amount of wreathing of doorways, trees and lampposts. There's a real difference this year in the presence of American flags amidst so many of the displays, even at houses that haven't been flying the flag since Sept. 11.
You may not be able to mix church and state on the City Hall lawn, but they are thoroughly mixed on private lawns this year. The displays show an embedded understanding of the close connection between America's religious heritage and its secular freedoms--and a determination, in the face of self-styled Islamic radicalism, to defend both.
Not that there are a lot of crusaders lurking in those comfortable suburban dwellings. Indeed, when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were roundly denounced by left and right when they talked about Sept. 11 as a punishment on an immoral nation. But it's clear Americans are having a little conversation with themselves about their moral and patriotic heritage, aware that it had grown somewhat tattered amidst a very secular age. The stinking hole at the heart of downtown Manhattan reminds even the non-believer of the possibility that evil is something more than an archaic term.
Church attendance on college campuses is reportedly up. Groups sing "God Bless America" at the drop of a hat. The Pledge of Allegiance--"one nation, under God"--is back in fashion in public schools. And the fascination with John Walker, the young Californian discovered amidst the Taliban ranks near Kunduz, Afghanistan, is also telling. As the press instantly made clear, Mr. Walker came from a family whose "tolerance" seemed almost a caricature of baby-boomer America's refusal to draw distinctions or render judgments on other cultures. One could not help but be reminded of author Midge Decter's famous formulation: "Liberal parents, radical children."
Americans are also observing the amazing success of their military leaders on distant battlefields. Not so long ago, commentators were worrying about the supposed gulf between ordinary citizens and the military. You don't hear much complaining about the military culture these days. It has vanquished a supposedly battle-hardened, fanatically-motivated foe just as easily as it whipped the fourth largest army in the world a decade earlier.
Could there be something worth learning from the military culture, which emphasizes such old-fashioned virtues as hard work, loyalty and individual initiative? Even Hollywood seems to be getting on the bandwagon, the new movie "Behind Enemy Lines"--stars the otherwise very liberal Gene Hackman as an American admiral who finally does the right thing and rescues "our boy."
Military and civic virtues don't spring from trees, as Georgetown Prof. Walter Berns points out in his recent book, "Making Patriots." They must be carefully cultivated from childhood on.
The goal is not to create a Christian Sparta. But rather to create within each generation the belief that freedom is worth defending. And why, exactly, is freedom worth defending? Not because we are free to do our thing, says Prof. Berns, but because freedom derives from "the laws of Nature and Nature's God." Freedom, in other words, is a moral duty--and all the more passionately supported because it is freely accepted.
Indeed, America is the most religious nation in the industrial world precisely because virtue is largely separated from the suffocating embrace of the state. Nor was this just a reflection of the fact that Americans had learned from bitter historical experience the need to be tolerant of diverse religious sects. Imbedded in the very Christianity of the Founders was the basic teaching that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
At this time of the year, I might wish that some residents might do a little less Christmas lighting unto our neighborhood. Some of the displays are over the top, though I suppose that's a matter of taste. But if you wonder why the Taliban theocracy folded like a cheap suit, while America once again triumphed, you need look no further than those private displays of faith and freedom in the front yards of your neighborhoods.
Mr. Bray is a staff columnist at the Detroit News. His OpinionJournal.com column appears Tuesdays.
