As a student of German history, the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, evoked disquieting images of the vicious street battles between the Communists and the Nazis during the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Back then, however, both Communists and National Socialists were well versed in the ideologies for which they were fighting. In Charlottesville and elsewhere in America, by contrast, self-proclaimed Marxists who have never read Das Kapital are locked in combat with self-proclaimed Nazis who have never read Mein Kampf.
No less unsettling has been the inaction of the civil authorities both in Charlottesville and, more recently, in Berkeley, California. In a reprise of policies adopted by the spineless leaders of the Weimar Republic, the police appear to have been ordered not to intervene to prevent the violence.
None of this bodes well for the future of our republic. The consequences of the official inaction in the face of civil unrest can be seen not only in the unhappy demise of the Weimar Republic, but in the similarly violent end of republican Rome some 2,000 years earlier.
Responsibility for the unrest, in fact, ultimately lies in our failure to take issue with the fashionable political enthusiasm for “cultural diversity”—in its current form, a flaccid “feel-good” notion that in no way represents the spirit that inspired the Statue of Liberty.
It is a concept that directly contradicts the sentiments expressed in the magnificent collect “For our Country” (BCP, Page 36)—a prayer that petitions God to “fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues.”
The champions of today’s version of “multiculturalism ” are by no means advocating the assimilation of immigrants from a wide spectrum of disparate peoples into our unique American culture.
Their aim is not to create one united people out of many kindreds and tongues, but rather to legitimize the existence of a wide spectrum of competing interest groups, some (but by no means all) reflecting racial and ethnic divisions.
In short, “multiculturalism” is nothing of the kind. Indeed, the multiculturalist goal is to overthrow the Western Judeo-Christian culture that forged our nation. “Multiculturalism” might thus benefit from a modicum of truth in advertising.
America is, as yet, still a free country—although, thanks to political correctness, not as free as it once was. People who live here, however, are still at liberty to espouse or reject whatever faith or political persuasion they choose.
Non-Christians are in no way obliged to convert to the Christian faith—or even to show respect for it. But before non-Christians rush to sign-up with the forces of multiculturalism, they would be wise to consider the consequences attendant on abandoning our Judeo-Christian heritage.
Today’s “Multiculturalism” is based the underlying proposition that the best of American culture is not Judeo-Christian in origin, but rather originates from “self–evident truths” common to all cultures. This notion is, in fact, quite nonsensical.
The vast majority of what we consider to be American virtues—equality before the law, equality of opportunity, honesty, hard work, self-sacrifice, openhandedness, and the like—plainly represent a synthesis of 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.”
Actually there is nothing natural about it at all. 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 at least a modicum of evidence indicating their guilt.
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 equally beloved in the eyes of the Creator.
To assert that fundamentally unequal people are equal—outside the realm of the Divine—is simply dishonest. Unequal people cannot be made equal merely by human beings asserting it to be the case. Truth, ultimately, will out.
The mindless espousal of the “multiculturalist” ideology by so many of our political leaders might explain the rapid erosion of civility in our society. Indeed, it seems likely that the rising tide of crime, immorality, and violence is directly connected with the public disavowal of personal Christian virtues.
Is “multiculturalism” opening the gates to barbarism? The proof of the pudding will be in the eating. GPH✠
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