quinta-feira, 1 de junho de 2006

Religião e Estado

ou "State worship and conservatism", uma muito interessante referência de Andrew Sullivan sobre como "the modern right's fusion of religion with the Republican political agenda endangers both religion and limited, constitutional government: (Via LRCBlog)"

"America's long experience of religion as essentially suspicious of government power is an anomaly in the Western world. For much of European history, religion and government have always been interwoven. And as European governments have grown, European faith has withered. As a Catholic growing up in a country where the state church was Protestant, and where I attended Anglican services and listened to the Book of Common Prayer as an integral part of receiving a government-financed education, I saw this first hand. And, as an immigrant, I found America's religious life a contrasting marvel. In America, faith seemed unconstrained by the compromises of government power and enmeshment, more alive because it was less enfeebled by the temptations of Caesar.

So much of that is now being lost, almost casually. We fight over faith because we disagree over politics. And one response has been to construct a religious leftism that also appeals to one political party - compounding the problem. The result is not simply the corruption of religion, but the inevitable expansion of government. If good is to be done, and government can do it, why limit the government at all? And so we drift from the wisdom of the founders, and risk losing something uniquely, quintessentially American. It's called limited government, and the individual freedom that has made this country such a refuge for those who look beyond this earth for meaning and beyond their government for salvation. It is becoming less of a refuge for those types; and more of a battlefield of phony certainties and expanding government. I wish I knew how to resist this better, other than pointing it out. But I'm afraid to say I don't."

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