Beneficence: Witnesses

July 28, 2004

Witnesses

Gerry asks in comment on Lay Down Your Hammer about my reference to Golgotha as well as points us to an interesting discussion taking place at Wealth Bondage.

Having neither read Multitude nor having much affinity for Fukuyama's take on the world, I don't have much to contribute to the WB conversation. I think that Fukuyama's End of History missed a fundamental point about the human condition that Samuel Huntington probably better addresses in his article and book on the Clash of Civilizations. I can critique neither in detail, but this brings me to the question about Golgotha.

The reference is to the hill where Christ was crucified, and the phrasing I used was meant to echo the resonant and pregnant words of Whittaker Chambers in the last paragraph of A Letter to my Children.

Chambers' essay is haunting, and I find it worth re-reading often. The point about freedom is one I share with Chambers--

One thing most ex-Communists could agree upon: they broke because they wanted to be free. They do not all mean the same thing by "free." Freedom is a need of the soul, and nothing else. It is in striving toward God that the soul strives continually after a condition of freedom. God alone is the inciter and guarantor of freedom. He is the only guarantor. External freedom is only an aspect of interior freedom. Political freedom, as the Western world has known it, is only a political reading of the Bible. Religion and freedom are indivisible. Without freedom the soul dies. Without the soul there is no justification for freedom. Necessity is the only ultimate justification known to the mind. Hence every sincere break with Communism is a religious experience, though the Communist fail to identify its true nature, though he fail to go to the end of the experience. His break is the political expression of the perpetual need of the soul whose first faint stirring he has felt within him years, months or days before he breaks. A Communist breaks because he must choose at last between irreconcilable opposites-- God or Man, Soul or Mind, Freedom or Communism.

I'm not sure whether Gerry is stating or asking if I believe that "For the powerless, to hold to the path of moderation is to choose Golgatha over Mars, martyrdom over the battlefield." In either case, to the extent that a martyr is a witness in the sense that Chambers uses the term (the Greek martyr literally translates as witness), I believe this may be true.

I am no pacifist, and understand that war is sometimes a necessity. Yet even to question honestly whether the Christian virtues might serve us better in fighting the violence of radical Islam than the martial virtues has earned me criticism from friends in certain circles... including people with whom I share a religious faith. Politics at its worst divides even friends. At its best--marked by civility and humility--it can unite even certain kinds of enemies.

My point about Golgotha, however, is merely to say that I have quite limited expectations about our our ability to create heaven on earth. Substantive equality/social justice seem to overshoot the possibilities for me, and so I favor procedural equality/rule of law. We should explore just how/whether these differences in language really reflect differences in vision.

July 28, 2004 in Language of Liberty | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83420f39b53ef00d83430cb3853ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Witnesses:

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:

Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.