September 18, 2006
"I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things
that I think are true. One. I believe there's an Almighty. And, secondly, I
believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's
soul, regardless of what you like or where you live, to be free."
George W. Bush, April 24, 2006
"I am pro-Israeli, not because of political expediency, but
because I believe Israel is the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy."
Jimmy Carter, Democratic presidential candidate, 1976
"It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will
legislate its creed into law, if it acquires the political power to do
so..."
Robert A. Heinlein
The role of religion in political
and geopolitical affairs has taken center stage in many periods in history,
with disastrous results. Religion can be rewarding for individuals as a source
of private morality and meditation. But when politicians and leaders start
using religion for political purposes, disasters inevitably follow. Against all
expectations, the mixture of religion and politics is presently making a
powerful come back, first, in the Middle East, where Judaism and the various
strains of Islam are fighting each other; secondly, in Islamist terrorism which
is partly motivated by Islamic fundamentalism; and, thirdly, in the United
States, where religious fundamentalism wields increasing power in the political
arena.
President Thomas Jefferson, probably the
greatest American president, thought that there should be a "wall of separation"
between the government and religious organizations in a democratic republic. It
was his understanding that such a wall of separation between church and state
had been erected with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that forbids
the establishment of a state-supported religion. In that spirit, there is a
current law, the 1954 Revenue Act, 501 (c)(3),
which states that a tax-exempt religious organization cannot get involved in
partisan politics without losing its privileged tax-exempt status. The law says
that organizations risk loosing their tax-exempt status if they "participate
in, or intervene in ...any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for
political office."
Why is the introduction of religion into
politics a dangerous development? Essentially, because religion tends to paint
the world in black and white, and is inimical to compromise, essential for
peace in human affairs and a democratic form of government. When religious
extremists acceed to positions of power, the risk of social strife and
political conflicts increases markedly. Armed with metaphysical certitudes, the
religious leader cannot help but divide humanity between Good and Evil, between
"those who are with us, and those who are against us." This allows him to
demonize his enemies and to proclaim that he is 100 percent in the right and
others are 100 percent in the wrong. All errors are on one side and all the
pious justifications on the other. Between friend and foe, between the pious
and the infidel, there is no middle ground. There is only a wall of hatred and
distrust that violence or warfare help to cement. Dictatorship, not democracy,
is the ultimate result when religion takes over a government.
The same applies internationally. Indeed, to have peace
among nations, even in the best of times, there must be some mechanism of
mediation and a system of international law. For instance, in the 5th Century,
after the demise of the Roman empire, the Catholic Church and its pope filled
the institutional gap and were often called upon, not always successfully, to
mediate international conflicts between states. A case in point was the
mediation that Pope Alexander VI carried on between Spain and Portugal to
divide the newly discovered territories of the Americas. The Pope issued a
papal bull on May 4, 1493, dividing the New World between the former and latter
countries. After minute negotiations, the Treaty of Tordesillas drew an imaginary line on the
globe. Going from north to south, and situated at 370 leagues or about 800
miles west of the Azores, it delineated the oceanic world between Spanish
(western) and Portuguese (eastern) spheres of influence. That is why Brasilians
speak Portuguese today, while most Latin Americans speak Spanish.
After the last war of religion, from 1618 to 1648, i.e. the Thirty Years' War
between European Catholics and Protestants, the world became more secular, less
fanatical and more civilized; henceforth, religion was kept out of major
international conflicts. The Charter of the then new world order was the Treaty of Westphalia,
which was signed at the end of the Thirty Years War.
The Treaty of Westphalia incorporated four basic principles: 1- The
principle of the sovereignty of nation-states and the concomitant fundamental
right of political self-determination for peoples; 2- the principle of (legal)
equality between nation-states; 3- the principle of internationally binding
treaties between states; and, 4- the principle of non-intervention of one state
into the internal affairs of other states.
That is why the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) is so crucial in the
history of international political relations. This important treaty formed the
basis for the modern international system of independent nation-states. In
fact, it marked the beginning of an international community of law between sovereign
states of equal legal standing, guaranteeing each other their independence and
the right of their peoples to political self-determination. The two most
innovative principles being proclaimed were the principle of sovereignty and
the principle of equality among nations. They were truly political and legal
innovations for the time.
The Treaty defined these new principles of sovereignty and equality
among states in order to establish a durable (eternal) peace and friendship
among them, within a mutually acceptable system of international law, based on
internationally binding treaties. This was a revolutionary approach to
international relations because, for the first time, it established a system
that respected peoples' rights and which relied on international law, rather
than on brute force and the right of the strongest to regulate interactions
between states.
A fifth principle was also present in the Treaty of
Westphalia of
1648, and it is the idea that in order to achieve an enduring peace, magnanimity,
concessions and cooperation had to be shown by the victorious parties in an
open conflict. It was the beginning of a genuine international constitution for
humanity, the advent of a new international order and a big step forward for Western civilization.
After the Thirty Years War, religion became less and less a
politically motivating force behind conflicts between European states, being
replaced by considerations of national interest. In a way, after 1648,
international affairs became "secularized" and somewhat devoid of
religious considerations.
It is to be deplored that some current day politicians would
like to push international law aside and bring the world back to what it was before
1648. Nowadays, the only widely accepted international dispute resolution
mechanism is the United Nations. Members of the currrent American administration
have taken steps to undermine this institution, but they have nothing to
replace it. Indeed, under George W. Bush, it can be feared that the United
States is falling into the Old World pattern which prevailed before the
American Revolution and the French Revolution, that is, the existence of an
unhealthy symbiosis between political power and religion.
The separation of Church and State brought the greatest
advance in Western civilization in the last three hundred years. Democracy and freedom
from state intervention in religious matters are the two underpinnings of such
a demarcation. What is most ironical is that many Europeans chose in the past
to migrate to the United States in order to flee a Europe corrupted by the very
mixture of state religion and politics. That the same debilitating corruption
is coming back in contemporary U.S. should be a concern to all.
_______________________________________________
Rodrigue Tremblay is professor
emeritus of economics at the University of Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@yahoo.com.
He is the
author of the book 'The
New American Empire'.
Visit his
blog site at www.thenewamericanempire.com/blog.
Author's
Website:www.thenewamericanempire.com/
Posted,
September 18, 2006, at 5:30 am
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