Multiculturalism is a popular fad with the folks who consider themselves the nation’s intellectual elite. It would be wrong, however, to imagine that, in its present guise, this passion for ‘cultural diversity’ in any way represents the spirit that inspired the Statue of Liberty.
Nor does it reflect the sentiments expressed in the prayer For our Country (BCP, Page 36), which petitions God to ‘fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues.’ Quite to the contrary, in fact.
Most of the folks who espouse ‘multiculturalism’ are not promoting the assimilation of immigrants from a wide spectrum of disparate peoples into our unique American culture. Nor, for that matter, do they aspire to create a new American synthesis of cultures.
What the promoters of multiculturalism want to do is to abandon and destroy the culture that gave birth to this nation’s constitution and shaped the ‘American way of life’.
Far from creating ‘one united people’, they are trying to shatter what remains of national unity and replace it with a vast spectrum of competing interest groups, some—but by no means all—reflecting racial and ethnic divisions.
In other words, ‘multiculturalism’ is nothing of the kind. ‘Multiculturalists’ are not united in their desire for a vast diversity of cultures, but rather in their hatred of the Western Christian culture that forged our nation.
As such, multiculturalism would benefit from a modicum of truth in advertising—starting with a change of name.
Rather than ‘multiculturalists’, they would be better described as ‘A-culturalists’. For most of those who espouse multiculturalism reject theistic—and, more specifically, Christian—culture in much the same way that ‘A-theists’ reject God.
This is all very well, of course. America, thankfully, is a free country. People who live here are at liberty to espouse or reject what they choose. Non-Christians are in no way obliged to convert to the Christian faith—or even to show respect for it.
But before those who are not Christian rush to sign on with the forces of multiculturalism, they would be wise to consider the decidedly unpleasant consequences attendant on abandoning our Christian heritage.
Multiculturalism is based an underlying premise that the best of American culture is not Christian in origin, but rather originates from self-evident truths. This is, in fact, entirely untrue.
The vast majority of what we consider to be American virtues—hard-work, self-sacrifice, charitableness and the like—are what are best described as Judeo-Christian values.
Take, for example, the presumption of innocence that underlies our criminal justice system. Many, if not most, Americans seem to think that it is only natural for a person who has been arrested and charged with a crime to be presumed innocent until they have been proved guilty ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
There is nothing natural about it at all. Actually, nothing could be more unnatural for a person who has been arrested for a crime to be considered not guilty. After all, they were arrested in the first place on the basis of evidence indicating that they are guilty.
Presuming a guilty person innocent until the case against them is proven makes sense only as an act of Christian charity. Otherwise it is simply chuckle-brained.
Similarly, treating people weaker than oneself, or poorer than oneself, or more stupid than oneself as equals makes sense only if one believes that all men and women are equal before God, the creator of us all.
To assert that fundamentally unequal people are equal—outside the realm of the Divine—is simply a lie. Unequal people cannot be made equal merely by human beings asserting such to be the case. Truth, ultimately, will out. GPH✠
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Le révérend HAWKINS Peter M.,
Le Pavillon, Mané Gouélo, RD 765,
56690 – LANDAUL, France.
Téléphone : 02 97 59 90 83.
Portable ; 06 48 42 78 70
E-mail peterhawkins@sfr.fr
LANDAUL le dimanche 17 mai 2015
Fr. Guy Hawtin takes a very “French” attitude to Culture, for in the past the French Colonies all promoted the French Language and Culture as does the French National Government in Metropolitan France. The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were broadly English Speaking and in English terms, Non Conformist. Historically that made them “Not Protestant” in the terms of the English Coronation Oath, which they had abjured.
In fact France has more than one culture and language, Provencal, Langue d’oc, Breton, Alsatian and that must also be true of the United States of America. I write cautiously about the USA, as I have only ever visited for a weekend, but it does seem from Europe, that there are a number of languages and cultures operating there, some from Europe, some indigenous, and some from Asia and Africa at the least. The same is true of many parts of the world, but it is useful shorthand to assume that a historically accepted dominant position for a language and culture represents all, but that would be to show ignorance of both languages and cultures. This is reinforced for “English” culture and language, as American power has made it most dominant in the world.
English practice by contrast, was to use the languages and systems of governance and cultures of the colonies, as in Canada, India, China etc.
Last Summer our first child, a Ward, whose father was Austrian and mother was Iranian, came to see us with his Californian family. His first language is Farsi, but when he lived with us he spoke Yorkshire very well, and now has a Californian accent. His daughter was keen to improve her French, and so I taught her an hour a day. It is my fifth language, and the one I most use outside the house. Afterwards I did wonder whether French was the right second language for her in California, as it seemed to me that Spanish would be more useful, but I suspect French has the higher social status!
What has been written about the virtues of the Jewish Christian Tradition “hard-work, self-sacrifice, charitableness and the like” would be true of most migrant groups in my experience in India and Europe, whether of the Jewish Christian Tradition or of other traditions.
Like wise the argument about “the presumption of innocence that underlies our criminal justice system.” allegedly a mark of “English Common Law” is ignorant of the fairness of the Justinian Law tradition and it’s consequent requirement in the European Convention on Human Right for rapid judicial process. Further Church of England Law as with Scottish Law follows Justinian.
It is noteworthy that persons approaching United States of America and United Kingdom of Great Britain Immigration Controls are not given the presumption of innocence that underlies our criminal justice system.
Finally it has always been the mark of the Christian Family that it is “Catholic” and therefore diverse, using from the beginning various scripts and languages, and thus multi-cultural.
hello sir. you are wrong in many ways. I think you’re probably the worst “Christian” I’ve ever seen. This whole paragraph just contradicted the most basic elements of your own religion (love, acceptance etc.) So maybe stop writing and putting your creepy ideas out where people can see them. I think maybe you should just keep them to yourself.