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Virtue & Morality: Freedom’s Prerequisites
Meridian Magazine ^
| Unknown
| Timothy B. Lewis
Posted on 11/17/2009 3:50:49 PM PST by Jacquerie
Our founders saw religion as the most powerful civilizing institution which could provide and sustain that moral base upon which our republic could be successfully built and without which, it would ultimately collapse like the Greeks before them. Consequently, they believed it to be imperative to encourage and support religion and did not see any 1st Amendment problem with governmental support of religion.
Rather than depending upon external legal constraints and force to maintain order and peace, they had to rely upon individual self-restraint and self-control. But they realized that it is only reasonable to expect people to act that way if they have a strong virtuous and moral base.
(Excerpt) Read more at meridianmagazine.com ...
TOPICS: History; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: constitution; naturallaw; sectarianism; utopianism
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To: SaraJohnson
People who do not have the ethics and morals - wisdom to government themselves, will need a police state to govern them. That is why liberals/marxists have torn apart the moral fabric of this nation. And it is falling...Ah, but what happens when those who govern a nation also do not possess the ethics and morals to govern themselves? Can even a police state sustain itself in a situation like that?
To: Poe White Trash
People would not elect such low lifes if they knew the difference.
To: Poe White Trash
This thread deals with morality and virtue as a prerequisite to freedom, not the abuses heaped upon our Constitution and nation since the founding.
43
posted on
11/23/2009 3:04:06 AM PST
by
Jacquerie
(It is only in the context of Natural Law that the Declaration & Constitution form a coherent whole.)
To: Jacquerie
44
posted on
11/23/2009 5:13:42 AM PST
by
antisocial
(Texas SCV - Deo Vindice)
To: Jacquerie
This thread deals with morality and virtue as a prerequisite to freedom, not the abuses heaped upon our Constitution and nation since the founding.So you see no significant connection between the two? That's odd.
BTW, you mean "religious" virtue and morality, correct?
To: betty boop
In general I agree with your insight here, ForGod'sSake. The only qualification I'd make is "true vs. false" is not logically the same thing as "good vs. evil." It seems to me "true vs. false" indicates rational categories, but "good vs. evil" indicates ontological categories. In other words, the two sets of terms distinguish between the different states of knowing and being. We Christians may sense ourselves moving along a linear path towards good or evil, according to our free choice. But without God to draw us, our propensity/susceptibility to evil will tend to overwhelm us, ineluctibly it seems.
So very true. Thank you for your beautiful essay-post, dearest sister in Christ!
To: ForGod'sSake; Alamo-Girl
Infinitely unknowable but eminently reachable. And that is the truly amazing thing....
Thank you for your beautiful reflections, dear sister in Christ!
All thanks and praise be to God!
47
posted on
11/23/2009 2:27:35 PM PST
by
betty boop
(Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. —Pope Benedict XVI)
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