Is Western civilization worth saving? Of course, it is. Interestingly, I write this on Columbus Day. “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” And on Oct. 12, he and his crew discovered land in the New World. And the old world has never been the same since.
Columbus did much to advance Western civilization. But there are many today, in America and in Europe, who don’t appreciate the freedoms we enjoy because of Western civilization.
Recently Marco Rubio, Trump’s secretary of state, spoke in Athens, Greece, in favor of Western civilization.
Rubio observed: “The next decade and the decisions we make will write the story of the next century. The course we take will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world, or resigns itself to a future of atrophy, servitude and decline. … We will either choose to act now, or lose the choice to act at all.”
Surely, ancient Greece and ancient Rome made major contributions to Western civilization. But the Judeo-Christian tradition more than any single factor is what defines the West.
When the barbarians overran Rome and ushered in the Dark Ages, it was the Church, more than any other institution, that helped preserve and save civilization. We wouldn’t even have most of the records of ancient history (much less, the Scriptures), had they not been tediously written out by hand (“manu-scripts”) by Christian monks during the Middle Ages. (For example, see Thomas Cahill, “How the Irish Saved Civilization.”)
Jump ahead to around 250 years ago, to the creation of the United States. Note what John Adams wrote in 1813 to Thomas Jefferson (even though both had become more theologically liberal by then) as to the role of the Christian faith in America’s creation.
Adams wrote to Jefferson, “The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite. … And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were United. … Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System.”
But there are some amongst us who don’t support Western civilization, nor America as founded, and want to see them abolished. In June, Democratic Socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier won her primarily for the U.S. Congress, representing New York’s 13th Congressional District. She won, even though she calls “for death to America and the ‘total eradication of Western civilization.'”
Writing for Yahoo!News, Robby Soave says of Chevalier: “She co-founded Columbia University Apartheid and Divest (CUAD), an organization that did not merely oppose the state of Israel but also celebrated terrorism outright.” Over this last weekend, she demanded (again) that ICE be “abolished.”
Why do people like Chevalier hate the West? In her case, she is a convert to Islam and wants to see the destruction of the U.S. Constitution.
But I think America’s two key founding documents reflect some of the best achievements in Western civilization. The Declaration of Independence (1776) says that our rights come from God and that we are to be ruled by “the consent of the governed.”
The U.S. Constitution, signed in the Year of our Lord 1787, indirectly says that man is sinful and fallen; therefore, power must be separated. If it is not, it is easily abused. Too much power in the hands of a few leads to tyranny. The Founding Fathers – not Bernie Sanders and his ilk (including Chevalier) – are the real opponents of oligarchy, rule by the few.
For example, James Madison, a key architect of the Constitution, said at the convention itself, “All men having power ought to be distrusted.”
Meanwhile, what has Western civilization given humanity? Christian author and law professor John Eidsmoe counts the ways. He states: “Let us credit [explorers like Christopher Columbus, Hernando Cortez] for its [Western culture’s] achievements and contributions: art, music, architecture, ethics, liberty, law, government, a Constitution that has served as a model across the world, an economic system that has produced the greatest good for the greatest number and the highest level of prosperity the world has ever known, and a spirit of ingenuity and achievement that led to unparalleled medical and technological advances.” (This quote is from John Eidsmoe, “Columbus & Cortez, Conquerors for Christ,”1992, p. 16.)
We are blessed to be the recipients of a great heritage in the West, especially because of Christianity. We should not let the new barbarians tear down the modern world, as their spiritual cousins did, beginning with Atilla the Hun sacking Rome in the early 400s.
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[ H/T WorldNetDaily ]
