In 1961, the Supreme Court ruled in Torcaso v. Watkins
that Roy Torcaso need not undergo a religious test for a position as a notary
public. The effect was to eliminate all religious tests for public office
within the United States. Even mere profession of belief in God was struck down
as a prerequisite for state employment. Torcaso eclipsed the
Religious Test Clause of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which states that
no one shall be required to adhere to any religion or religious doctrine to
hold office at the federal level.
While both religious and non-religious peoples might agree
that the decision in Torcaso was a correct
one, now the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme, whereby America is faced
with a new and pernicious problem.
The principle problem
with America is that we no longer know what we believe as a people.
Because most Americans now reject any absolute standard of truth,
our nation is unable to discern right from wrong in the face of critical
issues. This has led to severe divisions among us, which will continue until we
are destroyed from within.
Debate forums on cable news channels are a microcosm of the
American dilemma. Here bright minds argue remarkably important issues
confronting the American people, yet, without reference to an independent
standard. So, what do we hear? Logical fallacies, justifying bad behavior with
other bad behavior, begging the question (using a premise to support itself),
and ad hominin. Whether it be a
refutation, counterargument, or contradiction, the line of reasoning always
commits the same foul. It is incapable of drawing currency from an abiding
truth.
A cohost may ask his interlocutor for “just one fact” to
sustain his argument. But at a time when the relationship between language and
meaning has been torn asunder, a bequeath of the postmodern age, is it not a
little ironic for a panelist to ask for a fact? If there is no inherent meaning
in the Universe, what is a fact? In an age of victimization, absolute truth may
be America’s greatest casualty.
When the Japanese military bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, Congress
declared war because the moral decision to do so was, to borrow a phrase from philosopher
Alvin Plantinga, “properly basic.” Now, with the dissolution of the meaning of meaning, most Americans find themselves
rendering political and ethical judgments, not based on some self-evident given, but on political expediency,
self-interest, and economics. Indeed, if there is one standard Americans use to
determine right from wrong it is the NASDAQ. When it goes up, it’s assumed that
someone must have made a right decision based on principle.
This is not to suggest that one is not entitled to his or her
opinion. Opinion is the grist of conversation. But overall, American discourse
is no longer conspicuous by the exchange of ideas with common reference to a
cohesion-creating marker. Opinion sharing has, instead, turned to the ignoring
of relations other than what is self-serving to the arguer. The result is that
opinion, collective opinion especially, has turned to the tyranny of
opinion.
A recent PRRI survey serves as a perfect example.
It found that most Americans, a surprising 61%, believe private businesses
should not be allowed to refuse services and products to
homosexuals based on religious grounds. So, if a homosexual couple asks a Christian
baker to bake their wedding cake, that baker, despite his or her religious
objections, should be coerced to deliver the cake or face penalties.
Evidently, many believe that support of homosexual marriage is
correct and that people’s religious rights are negotiable. But on what basis?
The principle of equality? The law of anti-discrimination? Without an absolute
plumb line for morality how can one discriminate discrimination? Further, how
can abstract laws and principles create moral responsibility?
What is the answer? Americans must turn back to God and to
the Bible as our beacon of Truth. Only then will we navigate the difficult
questions of life together. The Bible makes some unique truth claims. It claims
that God exists and that he has chosen to communicate to us through his
creation, moral conscience, and the Bible itself.
One might counter, “But the Bible doesn’t speak to the
nuclear arms race, global warming, and racial injustice.” True, the Bible
doesn’t speak to every question. But one would be surprised to learn just how
many modern issues it does address. Where it is silent on specific
applications, it presents enduring principles. In all, the Bible tells us what
we need to know.
You say, “I’m a secularist and have no time for God and the
Bible.” But consider this. Beginning in the 60s, American civil religion came
under attack. Today, most symbols of our Judeo-Christian foundation have been
swept clean from public sight. Many argue that that is a good thing. But one
might also wish to see that the unprecedented acerbic acrimony that now characterizes
American public discourse, and the rending of our national fabric, might well
be traceable to day of Madeline Murray O’Hare.
What do Americans believe so that together we can face the
challenges before us with one voice, one heart, and shared values? This is the
problem.
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