Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Week Fourteen Essay Assignment
Bring a hardcopy to class Wednesday 29th. REQUIRED For best paper contest.
Use the sources provided below. Your name and page number should be at the top right hand corner of each page. Single space. You may print front and back.
Christianity is based on God’s Divine Right to rule his creation, this implies hierarchy. Civil society, on the other hand, is based on “Natural Law” in which (all things being equal) persons are equal. Natural law is the origin of the political theory called Liberal Democracy upon which the republic of the United States of America is based.
Focusing Question: Is Christianity uncongenial to Liberal Democracy? If not, then how are the two reconciled? Can they be reconciled?
A guideline to writing and organizing:
1. Summarize the two views. {Paragraphs 1-2}
2. Analyze: in what way does each text handle purpose, audience, angle of vision, appeals to logic, ethos, pathos, evidence? {Paragraphs 3-4}
3. Identify themes, similarities, differences in the ideas {Paragraphs 5-6}
4. In light of what you read, explore your own views on “liberty.” {Paragraph 7}
Hierarchy & Class proofs: View 1
Divine Right of Kings
Christian political doctrine that hereditary monarchy is the system approved by God, hereditary right cannot be forfeited, monarchs are accountable to God alone for the actions, and rebellion against the lawful sovereign is therefore blasphemous.
The doctrine had its origins in the anointing of Pepin in 751 by the pope after Pepin had usurped the throne of the Franks. It was at its peak in 16th- and 17th-century Europe as a weapon against claims of the papacy – the court of Louis XIV of France pushed this to the limit—and was in 17th-century England maintained by the supporters of the Stuarts in opposition to the democratic theories the Puritans and Whigs.
—QPB Dictionary of Ideas, 1994. [1]
The book The True Law of Free Monarchies by King James lays out the doctrine known as the “divine right of kings”—a doctrine of political absolutism. James wrote his treatise to rebut the puritan ideas of the day that would ultimately give rise to the American Revolution. The ‘divine right of kings’ doctrine is closely linked to the concept of ‘apostolic succession’ that underpins much of the Christian church’s claim to authority over its subjects. In short, it is the belief that Bishops, etc. ‘reign’ in the unbroken lineage of Peter and the other Apostles. The crossover between political and religious ‘absolutism’ is seen to this day in the ‘ordination’ of royalty in the United Kingdom, and in genealogical attempts to link modern monarchs (modern monarchs?) to King David, appointed by God.
—Alister L. Hunt Ph.D [2]
A Christian’s Duties to the State
13 Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. 2So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do good and you will have its approval. 4For government is God’s servant to you for good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For government is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong. 5Thereforre, you must submit, not only because of wrath, but also because of your conscience. 6And for this reason you pay taxes, since the [authorities] are God’s public servants, continually attending to these tasks. 7Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.
—The Holman Christian Standard Bible, 2004; Romans 13 [3]
Obey Rulers
2I say, “Keep the command of the king because of the oath before God. 3“Do not be in a hurry to leave him. Do not join in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he pleases.” 4Since the word of the king is authoritative, who will say to him, “What are you doing?” 5He who keeps a royal command experiences no trouble, for a wise heart knows the proper time and procedure. 6For there is a proper time and procedure for every delight, though a man’s trouble is heavy upon him. 7If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen? 8No man has authority to restrain the wind with the wind, or authority over the day of death; and there is no discharge in the time of war, and evil will not deliver those who practice it. 9All this I have seen and applied my mind to every deed that has been done under the sun wherein a man has exercised authority over another man to his hurt.
—The New American Standard Bible, 1995; Ecclesiastes 8:2-9 [4]
A Modell of Christian Charity
God Almightie in his most holy and wise providence, hath soe disposed of the condition of mankinde, as in all times some must be rich, some poore, some highe and eminent in power and dignitie; others meane and in subjection.
—John Winthrop [5]
Natural Rights proofs: View 2
Liberalism
political and social theory that favours representative government, freedom of the press, speech, and worship, the abolition of class privileges, the use of state resources to protect the welfare f the individual, and international free trade.
Liberalism developed during the17th-19th centuries as the distinctive theory of the industrial and commercial classes in their struggle against the power of the monarchy, the church, and the feudal landowners. Economically it was associated with laissez faire, or nonintervention.
The classical statement of liberal principles is found On Liberty and other works of the British philosopher JS Mill.
—QPB Dictionary of Ideas, 1994. [6]
Civil rights
A civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury. Examples of civil rights are freedom of speech, press, and assembly; the right to vote; freedom from involuntary servitude; and the right to equality in public places. Discrimination occurs when the civil rights of an individual are denied or interfered with because of their membership in a particular group or class. Statutes have been enacted to prevent discrimination based on a person’s race, sex, religion, age, previous condition of servitude, physical limitation, national origin, and in some instances sexual preference.
—Cornell University Law School [7]
The Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. [8]
The Western movement of “natural man” and “natural society” is generally understood as a historical development, men and women of middle-class background struggling against the “unnatural” oppression of their societies. American society was born of this movement.
Americans are now ready to be a “natural” as they wish to be. As it has always been since the beginning of this nation, people demand “Leave me alone” from one another and from society.
—Jon Huer, The Dead End: the Psychology and Survival of the American Creed [9]
The notion that the balance of nature could be emulated in political society runs through the writings of Thomas Jefferson. The whole conception of natural rights against society fade in relative importance.
—political science professor Mulford Sibley, University of Minnesota [10]
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Week Twelve Response - Extra Credit
Requirements:
- The response must be exactly 300 words in length.
- At least 40 percent of your words must be nouns (that is, 120 words must be nouns).
- All nouns (except pronouns) must be circled.
For an example, see the following. the nouns are in red:
A considerable body of critical commentary on Gilman has appeared in the past twenty years, much of it written or contributed to by several authors of a new collection, A Year of Favor, Harper Collins, but it is not much different from previous collections.
