American “conservatism” seeks to conserve the ideology enshrined in the Constitution. Historically the ideology of the Constitution comes from an English-speaking, Christian people. Which is why the Constitution is written in English, and why it concludes, "Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth.”It is often said of other countries that they “do not have” the US Constitution. But in this day and age, anyone who wants the words of the US Constitution can get them. When it is said that they do not have the Constitution, what is meant is that they do not traditionally abide by the Constitution. And if America accepts governance which does not abide by its traditional respect and adherence to the Constitution, America will then cease to be exceptional. And all its natural bounty will make only nominal difference in that regard. Russia has more natural resources, Canada might, as well. China and India have more people.
And all it needs is for America to allow itself to be absorbed by other cultures, and it will be no more exceptional, even to its natives, than Zimbabwe is to its own natives.
American Christians have no obligation to accommodate every other worldview on a basis of equality. Christmas is traditionally an American holiday - and, comes to that, so is (even yet, to a large extent) every Sunday. And even, to a lesser extent still yet, Saturday (the Old Testament Sabbath). When the Soviets took over Russia, they proposed to change the number of days in the week on some pretext or another, but actually for the purpose of persecuting Christians and Jews by making observances of their religion on a weekly basis impossible. And forcing people to celebrate occasions glorifying what the Old Testament rejects is of the same order of affront. Imposed retail rather than wholesale, but . . .
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? - Washington’s Farewell Address
You and I - and Jim Robinson - count ourselves “conservatives.” And in regards American traditions, including respect for the US Constitution and the freedoms which that institution stipulates as quintessentially American, so we are. But Christianity is just beneath the surface of the Constitution. Dismiss the Christian underpinnings of American tradition, and “fabric,” as Washington’s speech put it, must inevitably follow.
My only disagreement would that it is possible to have morality without religion. But, I think that is a subject for a different thread.