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The American solution to the problem of religious conflict in politicsthe First Amendment and the religious test clause of Article VI of the Constitutionis not well understood today. Much of the time, in fact, liberals deliberately distort the meaning of these clauses to imply a hostility toward religion. Recovering the rightful understanding can begin with a close look at Thomas Jeffersons Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty.

But readers really interested in a deeper dive into this whole subject should take in Giorgi Areshidzes new book, Democratic Religion from Locke to Obama: Faith and the Civic Life of Democracy. Its out recently from University Press of Kansas, which is unusual among academic publishers for producing books that are actually readable and interesting, even toperhaps especially tothe non-specialist. Dont be scared by the title here. Much of the book discusses the religious aspects of familiar figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., along with some analysis of the problematic approach to religion by the grand vizier of modern liberalism, John Rawls. Areshidze is appropriately skeptical of the coherence of Barack Obamas religious profile, as he explains in this short conversation we had a few weeks back (2:42 long):

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The Problem of Religion and Democracy - Power Line (blog)

In 2017, the rule of law and democracy itself are under attack by President Trump and his administration. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

There is much to celebrate in the court decision against President Trumps immigration ban. It was a stirring victory for the rule of law and reaffirmation of the independence of the judiciary. Yet America faces a serious problem which that decision did not address: the erosion of public faith in the rule of law and democratic governance.

While we have been focused on partisan divides over government policy and personnel, an almost invisible erosion of the foundations of our political system has been taking place. Public support for the rule of law and democracy can no longer be taken for granted.

In 2017, the rule of law and democracy itself are under attack by President Trump and his administration. This is as much a symptom as a cause of our current crisis. Public Policy Polling has released the startling results of a national survey taken this week. Those results show significant fissures in the publics embrace of the rule of law and democracy.

Only 53% of those surveyed said that they trust judges more than President Trump to make the right decisions for the United States. In this cross-section of Americans, 38% said they trusted Donald Trump more than our countrys judges. 9% were undecided. Support for the rule of law seemed higher when respondents were asked whether they thought that President Trump should be able to overturn decisions by judges when he disagrees with those decisions. Here only 25% agreed, with 11% saying they were unsure.

But, the result changed when the data were narrowed to those who identified themselves as Trump supporters: 51% agreed that Trump should be able to overturn court decisions. 33% disagreed. 16% were not sure.

It is tempting to attribute this difference between Trump supporters and others simply to the fact that the presidents supporters prefer a more authoritarian style of government, prioritize social order, like strong rulers, and worry about maintaining control in a world they perceive to be filled with threats and on the verge of chaos.

As the PPPs survey reveals, Trump is appealing to a remarkably receptive audience in his attempts to rule by decree and many are no longer attached to the rule of law and/or democracy. Other studies confirm these findings. One such study found a dramatic decline in the percentage of people who say it is essential to live in a democracy.

When asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 how essential it is for them to live in a democracy, 72% of Americans born before World War II check 10, the highest value. But, the millennial generation (those born since 1980) has grown much more indifferent. Less than 1 in 3 hold a similar belief about the importance of democracy.

And, the New York Times reports that while 43% of older Americans thought it would be illegitimate for the military to take power if civilian government was incompetent, only 19% of millennials agreed.

While millennials may be politically liberal in their policy preferences, they have come of age in a time of political paralysis in democratic institutions, declining civility in democratic dialogue, and dramatically increased anxiety about economic security.

These findings suggest that we can no longer take for granted that our fellow citizens will stand up for the rule of law and democracy. Thats why, while President Trumps behavior has riveted the media and the public, our eyes should not only be focused on him but on this larger and troubling - trend.

If the rule of law and democracy are to survive in America we will need to address the decline in the publics understanding of, and support for both. While we celebrate the Ninth Circuits decision on Trumps ban, we also must initiate a national conversation about democracy and the rule of law. Civics education, long derided, needs to be revived.

Schools, civic groups, and the media must to go back to fundamentals and explain what basic American political values entail and why they are desirable. Defenders of democracy and the rule of law must take their case to the American people and remind them of the Founders admonition that: If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

We need to remember that our freedom from an arbitrary or intrusive government depends on the rule of law and a functioning democracy. We need to rehabilitate both before this crisis of faith worsens.

Austin Sarat is a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College

See more here:
Americans aren't as attached to democracy as you might think ... - The Guardian

I watched President Trumps inauguration from an airport TV in Guatemala. Id just finished leading 22 people on a pilgrimage to live, study, and participate in ceremonies with Mayan shamans at sacred sites. For me, it was the first leg of a two-month working journey. I am still in Latin America, teaching and speaking at a variety of venues. In the days since that inauguration, I, like so many, have felt the horror of the emerging Trump policies.

Latin Americans cannot understand why so few of us voted in the last election and why so many who did voted for Trump. A larger percentage of people vote in most Latin American countries than in the U.S.; in several countries, voter turnout exceeds 90 percent. Many of these countries have a history of brutal dictatorships. Once free of these dictatorships, their citizens revel in their rights to hold democratic elections; they see their ability to vote for their leaders as both a responsibility and a privilege. They wonder why a relatively small percentage of voters would elect a potential dictator. And moreover, why those nonvoters did not vote against him.

The participants on the Guatemala trip ranged from successful business executives to community organizers and healerswith lots of other professions in between. They came from Canada, Ecuador, England, France, Indonesia, Italy, the United States, and Guatemala. Many, especially those from the U.S., arrived in Guatemala feeling disenfranchised, disempowered, depressed, and, yes, horrified by the election.

However, as we moved through the shamanic ceremonies, the participants grew increasingly convinced that the election is a wake-up call for Americans. We have been lethargic and allowed our country to continue with policies that hurt so many people and destroy environments around the world (including Washingtons involvement in the genocidal Guatemalan Civil War against the Mayas, which raged for more than three decades). This election exposed a shadow side. It stepped us out of the closet.

Many participants expressed the realization that Americans had failed to demand that President Obama fight harder to end the wars in the Middle East, vacate Guantnamo, rein in Wall Street, confront a global economic system where eight men have as much wealth as half the worlds population, and honor so many of the other promises he had made. They recognized that he was up against strong Republican opposition and yet it was he who continued to send more troops and mercenaries to the Middle East and Africa, brought Wall Street insiders into his inner circle, and failed to inspire his party to rally voters to defeat Trump and what is now a Republican majority in both houses.

We talked about how throughout the world, the U.S. is seen as historys first truly global empire. Scholars point out that it meets the basic definition of empire: a nation 1. whose currency reigns supreme; 2. whose language is the language of diplomacy and commerce everywhere; 3. whose economic expansions and values are enforced through military actions or threats of action; and 4. whose armies are stationed in many nations.

The message became clear: We must end this radical form of global feudalism and imperialism. Those who had arrived in Guatemala disillusioned and depressed now found themselves committed to transforming their sense of disempowerment into actions.

At the end of World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill told his people that England could choose the course of empire or democracy, but not both. We in the U.S. are at such a crossroads today. For far too long we have allowed our leaders to take us down the path of empire.

President Franklin Roosevelt ended a meeting with union leaders by telling them that now they knew he agreed with them, it was their job to get their members to force him to do the right thing. FDR understood that democracy depends on We the People insisting that our leaders do what they promise to do.

We failed with our last president. Lets not repeat that mistake with the new one.

It is extremely important that We the People force Trump and his band of corporatocratic henchmen to keep the promises we heard in his inaugural address. Let us hear making America great as making America a true democracy. Let us hear we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the American People as we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to followan echo of Churchills contention that a country cannot be both a democracy and an empire.

It is up to us to insist upon democracy. It is essential that we continue to demonstrate and march, to bombard Donald Trump and our other elected officials with tweets, posts, phone calls, and emails; to rally, clamor, and shout; and in every way to get out the word that we must end the wars, feudalism, economic and social inequality, and environmental destruction; we must become the model democracy the world expects us to be.

When General George Washington was hunkered down with extremely depressed troops at Valley Forge in the bleak winter of 1777, he ordered that an essay by Thomas Paine be read to all his men. Some of the most famous lines are as applicable today as they were then:

These are the times that try mens souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he who stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. A generous parent should say, If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace I love the man who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious future.

We have arrived at such a time again. We must each do our part. Lets here and now commit to taking positive actions. I commit to writing and speaking out at a wide variety of venues. I commit to supporting the Love Summit business conference, a powerful event committed to bringing love and compassion into business and politics, to transforming a Death Economy into a Life (Love) Economy. What are your commitments?

We have arrived at a time that tries our souls. We must gather strength from distress, grow brave by reflection, and know that by perseverance and fortitude we can achieve a glorious future. Lets make sure that the combined legacies of Presidents Obama and Trump will create the opportunityindeed the mandateto show the world how a country can be a true democracy. These are the times

This article was originally published atjohnperkins.org.It has been edited for YES! Magazine.

See the article here:
This Is a Wake-up Call to Take Back Our Democracy - YES! Magazine

She was constructed as a rallying symbol for protesting students in Tiananmen Square. And when the tanks came rolling in, the Goddess of Democracy crashed to the ground.

She was the symbol of a movement.

On May 30, 1989, 10 art students unveiled the Goddess of Democracy in the middle of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. She stood 30-feet tall, her arms raised to hold her torch high, her eyes staring unwaveringly into those of Mao Zedong, whose portrait hung on the opposite building. The statue rallied the flagging protestors, helping them to reinvigorate their pro-democracy movement in the face of exhaustion and government opposition.

And then, five days later, she watched as hundreds of tanks and thousands of soldiers invaded the camp, shooting down students and ultimately bringing down the goddess herself.

The protests had started two months earlier, in mid-April, after the death of Hu Yaobang, a Chinese politician who had been forced to resign from his position two years earlier over criticism that he was too sympathetic toward students and intellectuals.

While the movement would eventually end with a bloody roar in Beijing, protests were launched in several cities throughout the country.

For nearly two months, students, intellectuals, journalists, and others who sympathized with the activists call for greater rights and government transparency staged protests and boycotts.

In Beijing, these activities centered around Tiananmen Square, the site of many of the countrys most important historical events, from Maos creation of the Peoples Republic in 1949 to earlier student protests dating back to 1919.

The 1989 protests had launched with the force of the students passionate convictions, but, by the end of May, they were starting to wind down.

The students and their supporters were tired. They had put themselves on the line, their lives on hold, for months, and their initial energy and zeal was starting to leech away as more and more people left the square. There were murmurings that it all might be coming to an end.

But not everyone was ready to give up the fight. In a piece written on May 30, 1989, The Wall Street Journal reported that a core group of students had hoped they could keep the protests going through June 20, when the standing committee of the National Peoples Congress was scheduled to meet. But in order to do that, they needed a rallying cry to unite and reinvigorate the movement. They needed a piece of arta symbolthat would represent what they were fighting for.

Over four days and nights, 10 students from Beijings Central Academy of Fine Arts got to work building a statue that would do just that.

The result was a towering white statue of a woman, her one-shoulder dress artfully draped down her body. Her left arm reached across her chest to grasp the bottom of the torch held high in her righta two-handed grip on the flame of democracy.

Her hair billowed out to one side and her facewhich was detailed with Western featuresgazed determinedly over the crowd.

The artists made the choice to construct the statue out of plaster and Styrofoam, a decision that may be attributed partly to speed, but one that also had another benefitthe massive structure would be harder to dismantle.

The students regard the statue as a public relations coup: either it will remain and symbolize the democracy movement and official weakness; or the authorities will be in the embarrassing position of sending the police to attack the Goddess of Democracy and Freedom with sledgehammers, Nicholas Kristoff wrote in The New York Times on May 30, 1989.

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On the night of May 30, the remaining protestors in Tiananmen Square became curious when they noticed a wooden scaffolding being built in the middle of the square. Soon after, a crew of tricycle carts came riding into the courtyard, ferrying sections of the goddess from the art school to her new home. It took all night, but piece-by-piece, the Goddess of Democracy took shape.

Reporter Steve Futterman was on the scene that night covering the events of the protest. In a 2009 article on The Huffington Post, he recounted watching this momentous event unfold. It was a slow, arduous process, yet virtually no one left the square, so enraptured were they by the power if [sic] this papier-mch Goddess. The crowd cheered each time a new section was put in place.

The reaction was immediate. Futterman remembers that tens of thousands of ordinary Beijing citizens, people who had played no active role in the protests, quickly flocked to the square to see the statue.

She signifies hope for China, 22-year-old Y. H. Yang told The New York Times. But shes behind schedule in reaching the square, and shes coming by tricycle. That is symbolic of the slowness and backwardness of the democratization process in China.

This new symbol injected a fresh wave of hope and energy into the movement. Tiananmen Square filled back up and the protest enjoyed a new sense of resolve, one bolstered by the tall white beacon of democracy standing vigil in their center.

The Chinese government, predictably, was not so moved. They called the artistic expression an abomination and reiterated that this is China, not America, a fact that surely did not need to be reiterated to those who had given the previous couple of months to the fight for democracy.

But less than four days later, the government decided to intervene and end the stand-off. Premier Li Peng ordered tanks and thousands of soldiers to break up the protestors Tiananmen Square camp on the night of June 3 and into the next day.

There were reports that locals rushed into the streets to try to slow down the soldiers and provide a barricade for the students. But they were no match for the military force, which began firing into the crowds.

To this day, the exact number who lost their lives in the Tiananmen Square Massacre is unknown. Estimates range from the hundreds to the thousands, with thousands more injured and arrested.

Among the death toll that night was the Goddess of Democracy. Her end was televised as a tank rammed into her base and the statue toppled over, face forward.

While the government ultimately prevailed that day, the Goddess of Democracy remains a symbol of the freedom that the Chinese students were fighting for during those protests over two decades ago.

In the following years, cities and countries around the world, from Hong Kong to Canada to San Francisco, constructed replicas of the statue in their own public spaces.

But the Goddess of Democracy remains banished from Chinaat least for now.

The 10 artists knew their plaster and Styrofoam creation wouldnt last forever. In a statement they issued when the statue was unveiled, they revealed their hopes that a more permanent replacement would eventually be created.

On the day when real democracy and freedom come to China, we must erect another Goddess of Democracy here in the Square, monumental, towering, and permanent. We have strong faith that that day will come at last, they wrote. In the meantime, they implored, Chinese people, arise! Erect the statue of the Goddess of Democracy in your millions of hearts!

The rest is here:
The Fate of China's Democracy Goddess - Daily Beast

In 1776, our founders gave birth to a new country, the United States of America.

While there are various narratives about how America was birthed colonialism, slavery, segregation, sexism, etc. our country has become synonymous with structuring a belief system based on equality for all and exercising our rights to freedom of speech.

Our nation was built on the tenets of democracy: rule of law, freedom of press, respect of human rights and active political processes. It is the foundation for which our country stands.

However, since the rise of the tea party in January 2009, America appears to have moved backward instead of forward. Over the past few years, we have seen our nation return to a very dark place.

This movement was fully manifested with the election and inauguration of Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States.

Per the FBI figures as of November 2016, we are witnessing an uptick in hate crimes like we have never seen before.

There was a 7 percent increase in hate crimes overall in the United States and a 67 percent spike targeted toward Muslims. These statistics are not representative of the America that I know and love.

While many have applauded Trumps disruptive leadership style, others argue that his management style and tactics have become and are destructive for our great nation.

During Trumps first two weeks in office, he issued eight executive orders to bypass the United States Congress to advance his own policy agenda.

He signed executive orders to repeal the Affordable Care Act, construct a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, halt federal government hiring and institute a travel ban that prohibits seven countries with strong Muslim ties from entering the United States.

Although it is within his presidential prerogative to issue executive orders, many of these orders executed are reminiscent of a dictatorship.

Trump seems to ignore that America is built upon three branches of government executive, legislative and judiciary and wants to rule with absolute, dictatorial power.

This form of leadership does not catapult democracy, but rather erodes it.

For example, last week, after a controversial and bruising confirmation hearing, Betsy DeVos became the countrys Secretary of Education.

Due to a 50-50 tie on the senate floor whether to approve her nomination, the senate was split. On Feb. 1, Vice President Mike Pence broke the tie and voted in favor of DeVos becoming the Secretary of Education.

Pences vote signaled that there is no longer a checks and balances system with the Trump administration. And this is dangerous for democracy.

The arguments against DeVos nomination were legitimate. She is not a proponent of public schools and once suggested that guns may have a place in schools. For many, DeVos is gravely unqualified to be the nations educational chief.

In addition to DeVos nomination, Trump nominated Senator Jeff Sessions to become attorney general, despite his controversial past.

Sessions has a well-documented history of making disparaging statements against African Americans and equal rights.

During an unsuccessful bid to become a federal district court judge under the Reagan administration, the late Coretta Scott King drafted a letter on March 19, 1986 to oppose his nomination because of Sessions questionable support for voting rights of African Americans.

George Orwell once stated that Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.

America must return to its principles and decorum of democracy.

Belittling federally appointed judges, using power and influence to bully retailers and the media, and lashing out at every critical commentary is a form of tyranny.

We all enjoy the right to freedom of speech. But, there is a responsibility that comes with having that freedom..

In January, President Obama addressed a crowd in his hometown of Chicago during his farewell speech and stated: The work of democracy has always been hard, contentious and sometimes bloody. For every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back.

But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion, a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all, and not just some.

Democracy is our birthright as citizens of the United States of America.

Weve come too far to undo all the advances our forefathers and mothers fought for and cannot allow others to dictate our future.

As always, keep the faith.

Kevin R. Johnson, Ed.D. is a frequent columnist and the lead pastor of Dare to Imagine Church, 3801 Market St., Philadelphia, Pa. Follow him on Twitter @drkrj.

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We've gone from Democracy to dictatorship - The Philadelphia Tribune