Blog from the Capital

Thanks to a reader for pointing me to an interesting piece in the Newsweek/Washington Post series On Faith. Here Jon Meachem and Sally Quinn have posed the question "Is America a 'Christian Nation'? Should it Be?" They solicited answers from several including Southern Baptist leaders Richard Land and Al Mohler. But one of the most interesting is philosopher Daniel Dennett's response.

There are many deeply religious people who believe that they may democratically impose more and more of their creed on the nation, by simply exercising their First Amendment rights to free expression and creating thereby a climate of opinion that renders opposition by secularists politically ineffective. This is a grave danger to democracy, more subversive, in fact, than anything Al Qaeda threatens.

Many of us believe that American democracy is the best hope of the world, that it provides the most secure and reliable–though hardly foolproof–platform on the planet for improving human welfare. If it tumbles, the whole world is in deep trouble.
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[D]o we put the welfare of the nation above the welfare of our particular religion? If you cannot answer Yes to that question, you should consider that you are not a good American, but a part of the problem: you are taking advantage of American religious freedom without being prepared to pledge your support to the principle that secures it.

We are currently asking the Shiites and Sunnis of Iraq to put their allegiance to their nation ahead of their allegiance to their religion. We must surely ask ourselves, and especially our political leaders, to make the same solemn commitment.

I think it's a bit of a leap to equate the mere exercising of First Amendment freedoms with the imposition of a "creed on the nation." At the risk of countering a renowned philosophy professor, I would try by asking what's the point in having religious freedom if we're not allowed to express it? At the same time, his point about allegiance--especially in the age of comments like Dennis Prager's recent blowup over the Koran--is well-taken. A climate in which there is essentially a de facto national religion, through political pressure/intimidation and intolerance of diversity, is not worthy of our principles of religious liberty.

Dennett is the author of this year's Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.