# 4 - FORMING CONSCIENCES FOR FAITHFUL AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP # 3

# 4 FORMING CONSCIENCES FOR FAITHFUL AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP # 3

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH = HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONE.BLOGSPOT.COM - SUN. NOV.24/19

BILL BARR SHOWS THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS 'GENERIC RELIGION'

LifeSite - Friday, Nov. 8, 2019 - This article originally appeared in the October 27, 2019 edition of Catholic World Report. It is published here with permission from the Turning Point Project. Complete.

"On October 11 Attorney General William Barr delivered a powerful speech on religious freedom at the University of Notre Dame. The Attorney General detailed the many ways in which the State has taken side with various anti-religious pressure groups not only to curtail religious freedom, but to force irreligion and secular values on people of faith.

Barr reminded his audience that religion provides great benefits to the State which the State cannot provide for itself; and without which it descends either into totalitarian or licentiousness. "The fact is," said Barr, "that no secular creed has emerged capable of performing the role of religion." There's nothing new here, of course, and Barr cites a number of brilliant thinkers who have said as much - John Adams, Edmund Burke and James Madison. The main point they all agreed on is that you can't have self-government unless individuals learn to govern themselves. And the most reliable way that people learn to control their appetites is through religion.

But, as Barr points out, we need to keep reminding ourselves of the connection between religion, virtue, and freedom because, when we forget, religion declines and social pathology abounds. At that point, the State steps in to restore order - but almost always with a heavy hand.

There's much more. Barr's talk is worth reading and pondering. It provides a great deal of much needed clarity on issues that are seldom discussed in the mainstream media.But there is one area that Barr understandably avoids. If religion in general is declining in the West, there is one religion that is not. Islam is growing in the West, and all over the world. During the course of his talk he frequently alludes to the "Judeo-Christian moral system," "Christianity," and, not surprisingly given his audience, the importance of "Catholic Education." But he never mentions Islam - a religion that affects the lives of more than a billion people.

In one way that's not surprising. Barr is simply following in the footsteps of the Founders. When they spoke of the benefits of religion to society, it seems obvious that the religion they had in mind was Christianity. After all, that is the religious tradition in which they were raised.

In addition, most of the founders would had only a limited knowledge of Islam. When Jefferson and Adams - then ambassadors to France and England respectively - met with Tripoli's ambassador to England, they were surprised to hear his justification for the Barbary State's war against other nations.

The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners ... Twenty years later, when the first American edition of the Koran was printed in 1806, the editor saw fit to offer a few choice words about its contents: "This book is long conference of God, the angels, and Mahomet, which that false prophet very grossly invented."

Although the Koran is now readily available in America, many, if not most Americans, don't know much more about Islam than was known in America circa 1776. A fair number of Americans still think that the word "Islam" means "peace."Undoubtedly, Bill Barr knows considerably more about Islam than the average American. And that may be why he does not include it in his mention of religions that improve the nation's moral tone. That's because Islam is not exactly the poster boy for the argument that religion benefits society.

Most Muslim majority nations are quasi-totalitarian states. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, Christians can go to jail for practicing their religion, and Muslim women can be imprisoned for refusing to wear the hijab. In Saudi Arabia, Christian tourists can be arrested for openly displaying a Bible, and in Pakistan, one wrong word about Muhammad can put you behind bars for years. Meanwhile, Islamic Turkey holds the world record for the number of jailed journalists... (to be continued)   George H. Kubeck