the transmission of the moral heritage of america

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This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries] On: 21 November 2014, At: 05:07 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Religious Education: The official journal of the Religious Education Association Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/urea20 THE TRANSMISSION OF THE MORAL HERITAGE OF AMERICA Robert F. Drinan S.J. a a Member of Congress Published online: 10 Jul 2006. To cite this article: Robert F. Drinan S.J. (1973) THE TRANSMISSION OF THE MORAL HERITAGE OF AMERICA, Religious Education: The official journal of the Religious Education Association, 68:2, 149-156, DOI: 10.1080/0034408730680203 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0034408730680203 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information.

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Page 1: THE TRANSMISSION OF THE MORAL HERITAGE OF AMERICA

This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries]On: 21 November 2014, At: 05:07Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number:1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street,London W1T 3JH, UK

Religious Education:The official journal ofthe Religious EducationAssociationPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/urea20

THE TRANSMISSION OFTHE MORAL HERITAGE OFAMERICARobert F. Drinan S.J. aa Member of CongressPublished online: 10 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Robert F. Drinan S.J. (1973) THE TRANSMISSION OFTHE MORAL HERITAGE OF AMERICA, Religious Education: The officialjournal of the Religious Education Association, 68:2, 149-156, DOI:10.1080/0034408730680203

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0034408730680203

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of allthe information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on ourplatform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensorsmake no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy,completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Anyopinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions andviews of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor& Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon andshould be independently verified with primary sources of information.

Page 2: THE TRANSMISSION OF THE MORAL HERITAGE OF AMERICA

Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilitieswhatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly inconnection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private studypurposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution,reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in anyform to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of accessand use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 3: THE TRANSMISSION OF THE MORAL HERITAGE OF AMERICA

THE TRANSMISSION OF THE MORAL HERITAGEOF AMERICA

Robert F. Drinan, S.J.

Member of Congress

This was the opening address of the Convention of theReligious Education Association, at the Palmer House, Chi-cago, on November 19, 1972. It deals with the back-ground situation against which we can evaluate "Crisis andHope in Religious Education."

The moral anarchy which characterizes the decision-making processof the Federal government inevitably raises the question whetherthe religious bodies in America now have any influence on the pub-lic morality of this nation. The theme of this convention — "CrisisAnd Hope in Religious Education" — must be evaluated in the lightof the situation, totally unprecedented in American history wherethe United States government continues a war totally in defianceof the viewpoints of virtually every religious group in America.

I would like to explore with you three things: 1) the depths ofthe moral crisis in this country for which all of us are responsible,2) some misinterpretations of the concept of separation of churchand state which have inhibited churches from acting and 3) therainbows or rays of hope which may suggest that we are beginningto find ways by which the religious bodies of America may transmitthe moral heritage on which the American nation is founded.

I. THE PROFOUND DIMENSIONS OF THE MORALCRISIS IN AMERICA

It is humiliating for anyone who professes belief in a religion torecognize that the United States, a nation which prides itself in fol-lowing some unwritten code of morality known to all Americans,has scandalized the world by carrying on a brutal and savage air

Religious Education Vol LXVIII No 2 March-April 1973

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war against the people and the land of the four nations of Indo-china — an area about the size of Texas. All of the religious min-isters and the adherents of religion in America have not even beenable to persuade the members of the Congress to defund this war— authorization for which was withdrawn by the Congress as farback as December 30, 1970 — the day when the Tonkin GulfResolution was withdrawn.

It may be that the lawlessness inherent in the example of ourgovernment in Southeast Asia is one of the causes for the continu-ous escalation of serious crime.

Religionists feel impotent when they consider that some two-thirds of the 200,000 persons in jail today for the commission ofserious crimes will return to prison after their release.

It is not encouraging, moreover, to note that the number ofblack prisoners in the national total is approaching fifty percent!Everywhere in other words there is evidence that racism and the op-pression of the poor continue and increase while non-violent, white-collar crimes committed by the educated and the propertied con-tinue to increase and in all probability continue to go unpunished.

For those who would like to think that the United States iscarrying out something of the moral heritage of this nation, thepicture across the world of hunger and poverty is nothing less thanghastly. Of the one hundred infants born in the Third Worldof underdeveloped nations during the next 30 minutes 40 will notsurvive beyond their fifth year. Of the surviving 60 children some40 will be chronically sick throughout their lifetime. Of the sur-viving 60 only 12 will complete elementary school and only 3 of the60 will finish high school.

Across the threescore nations of the Third World there aresome 2 billion people living in abject poverty.

There is no world plan whatsoever to assist these people whosenumber is increasing rather than decreasing. The United NationsDevelopment Fund will have a total of 200 million dollars from113 nations to assist these 2 billion people! The United statesranks about 15th among all the nations of the industrialized worldwith respect to that portion of our gross national product which weshare annually with the peoples in the developing nations. For-eign aid in America has a very uncertain future: no foreign aidbill was passed last year by the Congress although whatever pro-gram still exists continues at the funding of a previous year.

The people of America may have some basic desire to feed the

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ROBERT F. DRINAN 151

hungry and clothe the naked of the Third World but they seem un-able or unwilling to recognize that so long as the United Statescontinues to spend almost one half of its entire national budget foralleged military needs virtually nothing will be available to assistthe millions of people in newly established nations seeking to findtheir way through the ashes of colonialism.

To compound the ghastly situation in which believers in Americafind themselves we must all recognize that it was the churches, per-haps more than any other agency, which created the concept of theso-called "free world" a t war with the people and the nations whoespoused communism. The tragic and ironic paradox that under-lines the contemporary crisis is the undeniable fact that the Chris-tian churches, in the name of containing communism, have helpedto create the most indefensible international situation in all of hu-man history!

The complicity of religious forces and religious people in thecreation of the present "co-existence in terror" is so mind-bafflingthat apparently increasing numbers of religious people are retreatinginto an emotion-laden form of belief and worship in which over-simplified beliefs are portrayed and communicated in a way so at-tractive that our minds and consciences can prescind from the hor-rifying spectacle of a nation and a world where Christian peopleand Christian organizations are incapable of even beginning the es-tablishment of some moral consensus by which the institutionalizedinjustices could at least be analyzed if not mitigated.

The movement towards making religion a private cult almostdivorced from the examination of social problems comes about whenreligious people unable to find a way in which they can be militantin communicating their convictions come to the conclusion that theymust simply be mystics rather than militants.

The crisis in communication of religious values, a phenomenonattributable in part to the withdrawal of religion over a period ofseveral decades frm the social and political order, is also due to aone-sided understanding of the concept of the separation of churchand state. It is to this idea that I now turn my attention.

II. DOES THE STATE IN AMERICADOMINATE THE CHURCH?

All too often we forget that there are two reasons why the adop-tion of the separation of church and state in America was a wisedecision. Roger Williams, who went to Providence in Rhode Is-

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land on behalf of religious freedom, worked for the separation ofchurch and state in America in order to protect the church from thedomination of the state. Some one hundred and fifty years afterRoger Williams, Thomas Jefferson advocated a separation ofchurch and state in order to protect the state from being dominatedby the church.

It seems to me that we have reason to believe that in Americatoday the fear of Roger Williams has been realized. The state inAmerica has forced its own view of the moral and religious issuesof the war and of poverty and of the Third World upon the church.The American government, in other words, has usurped the role ofthe church and has done precisely what Roger Williams warnedagainst. America adopted the separation of government and reli-gion in order to keep both of these institutions independent fromeach other but also influential on each other. The American agree-ment is that the state does not invent a morality of its own.

Today however a new and ominous violation of the separationof government and religion has occurred. The Government hasconducted a war — obviously the most sensitive moral act any statecan engage in — without the approval of the churches, the Congressor the people. The government has spent well over 100 billion dol-lars, has particulated in the slaughter of at least one million peo-ple, has created six million refugees and has made four countriesalmost uninhabitable. Such unprecedented conduct is preciselythat invasion and dominance of the churches by the state againstwhich Roger Williams warned.

This invasion is of course of long standing. The churches ac-quiesced in a usurpation of the moral power of the people when theUnited States government was allowed to pay two-thirds of the costof France's war in Indochina in the years 1950-1954.

The invasion by the government of the role of the churcheswhich started many years ago appears to have happened becausethe religious forces of society were not effectively present wheredecisions were being made with regard to nuclear weapons, theCold War or the Third World. In essence the personnel of thechurches of America have been unable or unwilling to recruit per-sons with deep religious convictions for elected or appointed pub-lic positions where they could modify or reverse decisions whichhave created institutionalized injustice by which the poor of thiscountry and of the world continue to be oppressed.

If the present crisis in public morality is to be resolved, the

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ROBERT F. DRINAN 153

churches in America may no longer stand in that same state ofparalysis which characterized the churches in Russia prior to therevolution in 1917. If militarism and institutionalized injusticetowards the Third World are to be eliminated as basic public pol-icies of America the churches in this country simply must recog-nize that the silence of the churches today can be compared to thedomination of the state over the churches of Germany just prior tothe slaughter of six million Jews by the Nazi regime.

The churches in America have customarily isolated themselvesfrom political power. The churches have assumed that this nationcan continue on a moral course on the basis of those moral prin-ciples which are brought to public life by the elected and appointedofficials of the nation.

I would like to submit that this assumption is no longer tenable.Religious groups in America must recognize that the basic moralnorms on which our society is founded cannot perdure without theadvent of courageous leaders who will recognize that, as Roger Wil-liams warned us, the state in America has brought about a danger-ous subordination of religion to the objectives of the governmentin America.

The depths of the crisis resulting from the withdrawal of reli-gious forces from the social and political orders in America is dra-matically visible in the impotence of the church lobby in Wash-ington. It seems fair to state that the several religious denomina-tions with representatives in Washington have not, either singlyor collectively, had any significant influence on national or Con-gressional decisions on the war, welfare, gun control or the elimina-tion of poverty.

A new wave of hope came about some years ago in 1963 withthe first National Conference on Race and Religion held in Chi-cago. The impetus of that extraordinary meeting helped to bringabout the freedom movement of the 1960's and to establish thecollective voice of the churches and synagogues of America as aforce of compelling significance. Tragic to relate, the impetus ofthat unprecedented Conference in 1963 seems to have completelydissipated. The moral forces which led to the desegregation lawsenacted by Congress during the 1960's appear to possess no wayof protesting the present refusal of the executive branch of theFederal government to carry out the mandates of those laws. OnNovember 17, 1972 a Federal judge in Washington commandedofficials of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare

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to cut off funds from the 74 school districts that have reneged ontheir plans to comply with desegregation orders but which are stillreceiving Federal funds. What ever happened to the religiously in-spired movement in the 1960's to bring about by non-violent meansthe desegregation of our schools and the integration of our society?

III. INDICATIONS OF HOPE CONCERNINGTHE PUBLIC MORALITY OF AMERICA

Although the evidence today is overwhelmingly clear that therehas been an erosion of the basic moral and spiritual values on whichthe American government operates there is nonetheless evidencethat religious people in this country are developing new insightsof a profoundly religious nature.

Let me mention three: 1) a concern among Christians over thefate of Jews throughout the world, 2) an ever deepening senseamong believers concerning real equality for women and 3) theemergence of a counter-culture which is nothing less than a nationworking an insurrection against itself.

One hesitates to say that Christians have set aside that anti-Semitism which is one of the tragic collective sins of Christians invirtually every age. There is evidence however that more and moreChristians care about the oppression of some three million SovietJews and that Christians throughout the world might well be cap-able of forming a world-wide revolt against the culture genocidepracticed by the Soviet Union against the Jewish community in Rus-sia.

The World Conference of Jewish leaders conducted in Brus-sels some three years ago appears to have brought about some miti-gation in the harsh treatment which the Soviet Union gives tocitizens of Russia who are of the Jewish faith. Could not Chris-tians throughout the world conduct a conference which could becalled Brussels II? Such a conference would bring together Chris-tians and other believers from all parts of the world and would fo-cus the attention of the conscience of mankind on the continued re-pression of Soviet Jews.

Is it not time, furthermore, for the Christians of the world alongwith all believers to resolve finally that the state of Israel shouldnot be required to continue to expend vast sums of its all toomeager resources on the defense of its own borders and its ownpeople? If the slaughter of six million Jews during the SecondWorld War is the greatest scandal in the history of the Christian

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ROBERT F. DRINAN 155

church, should not all Christians feel that the abiding threats to thevery existence of Israel ought to command the attention of the mindsand consciences of every person in the world who believes that thedestiny of every man was changed at the moment that the God ofAbraham intervened in human history?

A second wave of hope concerning a resurgence of moral andreligious values is discernable in ever more wide-spread awaken-ing on the part of Christians concerning the basic necessity of ex-tending real equality to women by a civilization which likes todescribe itself as fundamentally Christian. We have hardly begunto realize the distortions of Christian teaching which have enteredinto the justification, conscious or otherwise, of the denial of basichuman freedoms to women.

A third profound movement discernible everywhere can give allof us great reason for hope. This movement is quite literally an in-surrection of America against itself. We see more and more indi-viduals holding a radically new approach to moral values, endors-ing an attack on masculine domination and embracing a rejectionof those predominately economic and materialistic goals so oftenidentified as the great spiritual aims of American democracy.

This insurrection against America can be described as a counter-culture which challenges the omnipotence of the great industrial-ized empires. This counterculture protests the continuation byproxy of European colonialism and the process of subjecting thewhole planet to the white race. This counterculture signifies thepresence of a moral revolution yearning to be born in America. Itis a moral revolution which seeks to bring together the economic,technological and political power of this nation as well as of morethan a hundred other countries so that mankind will be able to sharefor the first time in human history a great cosmic adventure tobring equality and dignity to every nation and to every human be-ing.

It is my ever deepening conviction that the churches and all ofus must recognize the tragic predicament in which we find our-selves at the moment. We must, furthermore, move swiftly andcourageously into all of the tides of the surging secular world ofsocial and political change. Our involvement in such a movementdepends on the very definition of religion. Some devout personswill no doubt claim that the role of the churches should be re-stricted to the enunciation of certain moral principles and that weshould confine ourselves to the traditional modes of religious edu-

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cation. I submit that in an age when ever more omnipotent gov-ernments and ever more powerful capitalistic interests seek to dom-inate the lives of every person and of every nation believers cannotrestrict their religious faith to a private or personal cult.

The believer must recognize that political power is moral power.America's insurrection against itself wants to see the voices of

religion and morality effectively present in the chambers of govern-ment. Those who believe that religion should be present in thepublic morality of a culture must join together today with all ofthose who seek to resurrect and to revitalize the very best moraland spiritual traditions of American existence.

By this means we can hope to bring about a society where reli-gion is not dominated by government but rather a society in which,in the words of President Kennedy, "the strong are just and theweak are secure."

COMING IN MAY-JUNE ISSUE

SYMPOSIUM Process Thought and Religious EducationEtvert H. Cousins Teilhard, Process Thought and Religious EducationEugene Fontinell Pragmatism, Process and Religious EducationRandolph C. Miller Process Thought and Religious EducationW. Norman Pittenger Process Theology and Religious Education

Simon Greenberg

T. J. BachmeyerMorton T. Kelsey

Ronald E. CottleGeorge Brown, Jr.J. Gordon ChamberlinJames Lee Harter

Lifetime Education as Conceived and Practiced in the JewishTraditionThe Golden Rule and Developing Moral JudgmentAggression and Religion: The Psychology and Theology ofthe Punitive Element in ManWhose "Identity Crisis?"Making Room for ChildrenMrs. Anderson, Edward, and the CreedLet the Bible Speak for a Change

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