Western prosperity is based on secular liberalism and religious freedom, not on religious tradition.
“The Muslim faith, in the long run, is incompatible with Western Culture,” wrote a social media correspondent.
Whether this statement is true or false depends not on the content of the Muslim faith, but on its relationship with government. Muslim theonomy, in which Sharia law becomes the law of the land, or theocracy, in which religious leaders hold political power, are indeed incompatible with Western culture.
This is not because Western culture is based on Judaeo-Christian principles, however. It isn’t, and hasn’t been for centuries.
They would be incompatible, because Western culture is based firmly on the foundation of secularism, the separation of church and state, and religious freedom.
This is an important point that modern religious conservatives in the West – those who campaign for a revival of Christian “family values” in society, especially in law, court decisions and schools – seem to miss.
Christian theonomy, that is, the application of divine law to society, or Christian theocracy, are equally incompatible with Western culture.
Neither observation, however, implies that Islam, or Christianity, are ipso facto incompatible with Western culture. They are not. It is religious rule that is incompatible with Western liberal democracy.
Intolerance
It seems strange to be having this sort of argument, when the question has been politically and practically resolved for hundreds of years.
Religious intolerance once was the cause of endless and needless wars between countries, and of persecution of individuals within countries.
The Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation of the early 16th century plunged Europe into 200 years of periodic religious wars, some of which were extraordinarily brutal, decimating large populations.
When Catholics were in power, they hunted, tortured and burnt Protestants alive for “heresy”. When Protestants were in power, they hunted, tortured and burnt Catholics alive for “heresy”.
Commerce and trade
This had a severe impact on social harmony, and especially on commerce and trade. As the Middle Ages drew to a close, people chafed against the bonds of a corrupt and conservative church, and the feudal aristocracy.
Religious persecution made it hard to develop a post-feudal society in which people were free to work and merchants were free to prosper.
In England, the reign of Elizabeth I brought a temporary halt to the bloody religious conflicts that came before. Nominally a Protestant, the queen chose not to penalise heresy with the death penalty, and the law against Catholicism was only loosely enforced.
Similar settlements between Catholics and Protestants were reached in some other European capitals, but despite the Peace of Augsburg of 1555 – which recognised the principle of cuius regio, eius religio (who rules, their religion) – and the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 – which established the modern system of national sovereignty and recognised Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism as state religions – sporadic religious wars continued well into the 18th century.
Tolerance and sectarianism
In England, the Toleration Act of 1688 permitted Protestant dissidents or non-conformists to worship outside the established state religion, provided they swore allegiance to the monarch and recognised the supremacy of the Anglican Church.
Catholics did not enjoy freedom to worship, but pro-Catholic sentiment would survive, and sectarian hostility between Protestants and Catholics survives to this day.
(Notably, just about every British town has at least two rival football clubs, one representing Catholics and one representing Protestants. Liverpool is Catholic. Everton is Protestant. Manchester United is Catholic. Manchester City is Protestant. Glasgow Celtic is Catholic. Glasgow Rangers is Protestant.)
In Catholic France, the Edict of Nantes granted toleration to Protestants in 1598, but this was revoked in 1685 by the Edict of Fontainebleau.
Enlightenment
Meanwhile, Enlightenment thinkers of the 17th and 18th centuries – notably John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot and François-Marie Voltaire – began to develop a doctrine of secularism.
They sought to separate the church and the state, protect religion as a private matter and secure peace through religious tolerance. They envisioned a government based upon reason, philosophical naturalism and individual rights, instead of one based upon religious law and doctrine.
Civil government, they asserted, should concern itself with the protection of life, liberty, and property. The salvation of souls was a matter for individual conscience and churches unconstrained by government edicts.
Dissidents
During the centuries of wars and oppression in Europe, religious dissidents fled. Many ended up in the colonies. Some settlers in South Africa fled religious persecution in their home countries; the French Huguenots being perhaps the most famous among them.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded by Puritans escaping England, after being suppressed over their objections to the ostentatious excesses of the Anglican Church.
These non-conformists had significant influence in the pre-revolutionary US. They rejected the legitimacy of a state-imposed religion. It is to them that the US would ultimately owe the so-called “establishment clause”: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
The separation of church and state, in the US at least, was not so much intended to protect the government from the church, as to protect the church from the government.
Integral
The principles of secularism and religious freedom became integral to the development of modern Western liberal democracies.
In countries like the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, these principles have helped to create inclusive societies where individuals can freely express their beliefs without fear of persecution or discrimination.
The secular state, by refraining from endorsing or privileging any particular religion, provides a neutral framework within which diverse religious and non-religious perspectives can coexist.
Prosperity
The separation of religion and state has been a crucial factor in the prosperity of Western nations.
Secularism freed science and commerce from the strictures of religion. It freed them from the conservatism of the church, just as the advent of democracy and the passing of feudalism freed science and commerce from the arbitrary exercise of power by a hereditary aristocracy.
By ensuring that government policies are based on reason, evidence, and the public good, rather than on religious dogma, secularism has facilitated scientific advancement, economic development, and social progress.
Secularism has fostered economies in which innovation and creativity can flourish. The ability to question established norms and pursue new ideas without religious constraints has driven technological progress, commercial success and free trade, leading to higher productivity and improved quality of life.
Social stability
The protection of religious freedom has also contributed to social stability, as individuals and communities are less likely to engage in conflict over religious differences when their rights are safeguarded.
Religions – whether Catholic, Protestant, Shiite, Sunni, Jewish or Hindu – are only a threat to Western liberal democracies if they attempt to use political power to impose their own dogmas and moral values upon others.
Religious conservatives in the West, including both Catholic integrationists and the evangelical movement, are inspired in large part by Christian reconstructionists, who pursue a society subject to the authority of Christ and the restoration of Biblical laws, social mores and punishments such as the death penalty.
This is just as problematic as the desire on the part of some Muslims to impose their interpretation of Quranic values by means of law.
If people are to enjoy the right of religious freedom for their own beliefs, they must respect the right of others to be free to exercise other religions, or no religion at all.
Religious freedom is as much about freedom of religion as it is about freedom from religion, especially if it is imposed by a governing authority.
Cornerstone
The cornerstone of Western culture is not a particular religious tradition, but secularism and religious freedom. These values predate even democracy as a foundational principle.
The development of these concepts over centuries has shaped the political, social, and economic landscapes of Western nations. It has made the West an economic and cultural powerhouse. It has fostered environments where diverse beliefs can coexist and individuals are free to pursue their lives and aspirations without religious coercion.
These rights and freedoms were hard-won, over centuries, at the cost of millions of lives. Let us not sacrifice them in a fit of political partisanship.
[Photo: Toleration.webp – William III giving his royal assent to the Toleration Act. From Cassell’s Illustrated History of England, Volume 4, by John Cassell, 1865]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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