Daniel Darling: The welfare of America

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 3rd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. World Opinions Commentator Daniel Darling now on what Christians can do to reclaim the public square.

DANIEL DARLING: Prominent atheist Richard Dawkins shocked the world a few months ago by declaring that he is a “cultural Christian.” Some scoffed at his desire to enjoy the fruits of Christianity after decades of sawing at its branches. But others saw an apologetic benefit to Dawkins’ words and, perhaps, a sign that the atheist is making an ever-so-slight turn toward faith.

What is indisputable is that Dawkins’ candid admission is an affirmation of the prophetic words offered 40 years ago by Richard John Neuhaus in his classic work of political theology, The Naked Public Square. Neuhaus, a Lutheran convert to Catholicism, presciently recognized the peril of pushing Christianity to the margins of public life in favor of secularism. “In a democratic society, state and society must draw from the same moral well. In addition, because transcendence abhors a vacuum, the state that styles itself as secular will almost certainly succumb to secularism.”

If only Neuhaus could see how his words became reality. The steady march of the sexual revolution, the loneliness brought about by an atomized self-sufficiency, the abandonment of public virtue, and the decline of the family have left even atheists like Dawkins recognizing the social benefits of Christianity.

Neuhaus saw religion as essential for democracy. He writes: “The chief threat comes from a collapse of the idea of freedom and of the social arrangements necessary to sustaining liberal democracy. … Indispensable to this arrangement are the institutional actors, such as the institutions of religion, that make claims of ultimate or transcendent meaning.”

Without these institutions, what fills the void is worse. Neuhaus feared that a naked public square would not be naked for long but would be adorned by less virtuous actors, particularly the state. He said, “The truly naked public square is at best a transitional phenomenon.” He goes on to say, “a perverse notion of the disestablishment of religion leads to the establishment of the state as church.”

Forty years after its first publication, The Naked Public Square is still a good word for Christians struggling to understand their place in the life of our nation. Neuhaus’ prescription is not, as some suggest, to abandon democracy for an established state church. Rather, it’s for Christians to do as Jeremiah did…encouraging the exiles of Babylon to actively seek the welfare of this great country. We do this by stewarding our citizenship responsibly by speaking, voting, and, perhaps, running for public office. But we also work and pray for moral and spiritual renewal brought about by evangelism, discipleship, and revival.

For the health of our nation, for the flourishing of our neighbors, for the glory of God, we must not retreat from America’s aspiration toward “a more perfect union.” And all Americans are served when Christians bring their faith commitments with them into the public square. This is what Richard John Neuhaus believed and, apparently, what even atheists like Richard Dawkins are beginning to grudgingly accept.

I’m Daniel Darling.

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