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Constitution Minute
August 13, 2017
The Founders: “A Theocratic Cult of Religious Nuts”
Public radio host Kurt Andersen said on Charlie Rose earlier this month that America was founded by “a theocratic cult of religious nuts.” Andersen is a self-described “liberal atheist”.
There is no shortage of people who criticize the Constitution and the founding on this basis, but they are all missing at least five things:
In the first place, these so-called religious nuts created the longest enduring written Constitution in the world, so their critics might have just a little respect, please. Our Constitution has endured over 200 years. In contrast, a magazine Andersen founded ceased publishing after only 12 years. Score one for religious nuts.
Second, the early battles for individual liberty were fought by religious people for religious liberty. Anyone who cherishes individual freedom owes them a debt of gratitude. This history is laid out in very readable fashion in the early chapters of Libertarianism: A Primer by David Boaz of the Cato Institute. Score? Religious nuts 2, Andersen 0.
Third, it was religious people who developed the philosophy that elevated the individual. You can’t have a tradition of individual rights like we have in this country without first elevating the individual. Why bother bestowing rights on individuals unless they have dignity and worth, and are to be regarded and treated as if they have souls. Devalue the individual and elevate the collective, and pretty soon 100 million people are dead, as happened under communism – an atheistic system that does not recognize individual rights. Andersen has the nerve to criticize America for what he calls “ultra-individualism”. All I can say is, thank heaven for individualism and individual rights. I’m glad I wasn’t born in China where my government would be looking at me wondering what my kidneys might be worth on the open market. If you don’t know about forced organ harvesting in China, you really should look it up. Score: Religious nuts 3, Andersen 0.
Fourth, religion is about the last institution still in the business of teaching right from wrong. Somebody has to do it. Either people will learn to govern themselves and their own behavior, or they’re going to end up with a big fat government sitting on top of them to do it for them. The Constitution sets up a system of limited government. One of our Founders, John Adams, said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Hooray for limited government. It goes hand-in-glove with individual rights. Religious nuts 4, Andersen 0.
Fifth, Andersen claims the Founders wanted to establish a theocracy. He could not be more wrong. A theocratic constitution was expressly proposed, voted on, and rejected at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. How could a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard like Andersen get it so wrong? Well, If he ever takes a break from being so sanctimonious and smug, he might try cracking a book. Game, set, and match.
Why am I making a big deal out of all of this? Because this type of criticism is very common now, and it has not been answered nearly enough. Ayn Rand wrote in 1965, when students were starting to run amok on campus:
I don’t want people a hundred years from now to believe America was founded by religious nuts, just because the Left keeps repeating a Big Lie and people who know the truth choose to remain silent. We must build a fortress around the American Idea and the reputation of the Founders. It’s part of keeping America a free country.
There’s an irony in the religion of anti-religion using free speech to trash the founding. You know, free speech, that First Amendment thing brought to you by “a theocratic cult of religious nuts.” Andersen and people like him owe the Founders everything, whether they want to admit it or not, for creating a country where liberal atheists like them are free to trash religion to their heart’s content.
Public radio host Kurt Andersen said on Charlie Rose earlier this month that America was founded by “a theocratic cult of religious nuts.” Andersen is a self-described “liberal atheist”.
There is no shortage of people who criticize the Constitution and the founding on this basis, but they are all missing at least five things:
In the first place, these so-called religious nuts created the longest enduring written Constitution in the world, so their critics might have just a little respect, please. Our Constitution has endured over 200 years. In contrast, a magazine Andersen founded ceased publishing after only 12 years. Score one for religious nuts.
Second, the early battles for individual liberty were fought by religious people for religious liberty. Anyone who cherishes individual freedom owes them a debt of gratitude. This history is laid out in very readable fashion in the early chapters of Libertarianism: A Primer by David Boaz of the Cato Institute. Score? Religious nuts 2, Andersen 0.
Third, it was religious people who developed the philosophy that elevated the individual. You can’t have a tradition of individual rights like we have in this country without first elevating the individual. Why bother bestowing rights on individuals unless they have dignity and worth, and are to be regarded and treated as if they have souls. Devalue the individual and elevate the collective, and pretty soon 100 million people are dead, as happened under communism – an atheistic system that does not recognize individual rights. Andersen has the nerve to criticize America for what he calls “ultra-individualism”. All I can say is, thank heaven for individualism and individual rights. I’m glad I wasn’t born in China where my government would be looking at me wondering what my kidneys might be worth on the open market. If you don’t know about forced organ harvesting in China, you really should look it up. Score: Religious nuts 3, Andersen 0.
Fourth, religion is about the last institution still in the business of teaching right from wrong. Somebody has to do it. Either people will learn to govern themselves and their own behavior, or they’re going to end up with a big fat government sitting on top of them to do it for them. The Constitution sets up a system of limited government. One of our Founders, John Adams, said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Hooray for limited government. It goes hand-in-glove with individual rights. Religious nuts 4, Andersen 0.
Fifth, Andersen claims the Founders wanted to establish a theocracy. He could not be more wrong. A theocratic constitution was expressly proposed, voted on, and rejected at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. How could a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard like Andersen get it so wrong? Well, If he ever takes a break from being so sanctimonious and smug, he might try cracking a book. Game, set, and match.
Why am I making a big deal out of all of this? Because this type of criticism is very common now, and it has not been answered nearly enough. Ayn Rand wrote in 1965, when students were starting to run amok on campus:
- In the absence of intellectual opposition, the rebels' notions will gradually come to be absorbed into the culture. The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted by degrees, by precedent, by implication, by erosion, by default, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other— until the day when they are suddenly declared to be the country's official ideology.
I don’t want people a hundred years from now to believe America was founded by religious nuts, just because the Left keeps repeating a Big Lie and people who know the truth choose to remain silent. We must build a fortress around the American Idea and the reputation of the Founders. It’s part of keeping America a free country.
There’s an irony in the religion of anti-religion using free speech to trash the founding. You know, free speech, that First Amendment thing brought to you by “a theocratic cult of religious nuts.” Andersen and people like him owe the Founders everything, whether they want to admit it or not, for creating a country where liberal atheists like them are free to trash religion to their heart’s content.
"If men were angels...." Federalist No. 51
