This is from another thread on the French Revolution that got pulled (I suspect for being a duplicate). But I found it to be a good post so I saved it to post here.
I watched "The French Revolution" Monday night on the History Channel and found myself somewhat disturbed by what went on. I didn't notice anything terribly inaccurate with the presentation (only that the minor detail of the French army's refusal to crack down on the revolutionaries in 1789 was glossed over), but I couldn't help but notice how starkly different the American and French revolutions were. Both dealt with the same inherint problem: a corrupt and arrogant aristocratic government oppressing the common people.
Both Began in similar fashion: we responded to the Stamp Acts with the Continental Congress; they resonded to the eviction from the Estates-General with the National Assembly. We prevented the Redcoats from seizing our military stores (and ability to defend ourselves) at Lexington and Concord; they stormed the Bastille to get the gun powder needed to defend Paris against royal troops. We passed the Declaration of Independance; they passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The printing press was key to our cause; it was key to theirs as well. By 1792 however, something had gone horribly wrong. Whereas we peacefully set up a government and forged a nation, they sank into the Reign of Terror. Why?
The answer, it seems to me, is Christianity. The leaders of the American Revolution were either devoted Christians themselves are had deep respect for the tenets of the Faith. The French revolutionaries associated Christianity with the aristocracy and tried to purge the all things even remotely tied to the Faith from France. The damage is still seen today. Isn't interesting how quickly Robespierre, Marat and the mob descended to a Reign of Terror worthy of Caligula or Nero once they had rejected the Lord?
Any other thoughts....?
---I came away with the same thoughts and I have not seen the piece but it would appear from most of the posts here that the subject was practically left out..what a joke if this is true.
I don't discount the Christian aspect, but would point out that the rationalism of the French Revolution certainly made it more susceptible to violence as it allowed them to make or change their own rules as they went along, whereas the concept of the rule of law of the American Revolution meant just the opposite.
In a way, we are on the same page here, since both the rule of law and the Christian system of ethics require specific unchanging standards of behavior.