ESSAY DEFENDING WESTERN CIVILIZATION Mark Tooley

Donald Trump’s July 6 Gandhi also said, “Western civ- speech defending Western ilization is material, frankly Civilization excited predictable material. It measures progress accolades and condemnations. by the progress of matter—rail- Critics claimed he was extolling ways, conquest of disease, con- a tribal blood and soil defense quest of the air. These are the of the West. Fans acclaimed triumphs of civilization accord- his mostly conventional affir- ing to Western measure.” This mation of Western principles. critique portrays the West as Admirably, he declared that secular, anti-spiritual, uncon- “above all, we value the digni- cerned with the affairs of the ty of every human life, protect soul and transcendence. He pro- the rights of every person, and posed that Eastern Civilization, share the hope of every soul to supposedly less concerned with live in freedom. That is who we material progress, better har- are. Those are the priceless ties monizes the material world with that bind us together as nations, the life of the soul. There are as allies, and as a civilization.” many Western Christians who He commended a “democratic have accepted that critique. Europe,” although he unfortu- nately did not otherwise men- Trump’s speech mentioned tion democracy specifically. ’s traditional deep faith in God and that faith’s central concepts about human life and Defending Western Civilization, role in overcoming communism. human equality have prevailed once commonly called Christian This brief mention is more than throughout the West to such an Civilization, is not a theme com- what is present in most oth- extent that prosperity, comfort, mon to religious discourse on er contemporary references to and human dignity are now pre- any part of the political spec- Western Civilization, which is sumed to be not just goals but trum. For the Religious Left, widely perceived to be secular rights guaranteed by society and the presumed existence of such or post-Christian. Secular elites specifically the state. a civilization is morally absurd. throughout the West often act They would largely agree with clueless as to the West’s reli- Yet Christian elites are curi- Mahatma Gandhi, who when gious, largely Christian origins. ously detached from the proj- supposedly asked his thoughts And Christians too quickly ac- about Western Civilization, re- cept the premises of Western ect of Western Civilization. sponded, “It would be a good Christianity’s supposed sunset. The Religious Left in America idea,” implying the existing unctuously demands social West did not live up to its In fact, a civilization once justice based on ultimately ideals. Ironically, the British- shaped and transformed by the Christian premises, imposed educated and South-African- Gospel does not easily revert, by judicial or legislative fiat, raised Gandhi was himself a absent violent revolution or in ways that could be sarcasti- product of it, and his nationalist external invasion, no matter cally labeled as theocratic. The liberation movement grafted the low rates of church partici- Religious Right is commonly Western concepts onto a mostly pation or popular faith in theo- accused of theocratic aspira- Hindu culture. logical particulars. Christian tions because of its resistance

44 President Donald J. Trump and President of Poland Andrzej Duda in the Royal Castle in Warsaw on July 6, 2017, the same day Trump delivered his speech about Western values. They stand in front of , or The Fall of Poland, by , 1866. The painting portrays —a deputy of Poland’s , or Parliament—as he protests against the First Partition of Poland, which Russia, , and Austria imposed on Poland in 1773. Many members of the Sejm had been bribed or forced to accept the Partition, so Rejtan blocked the doorway to stall them from accepting the demands. Official White House Photo, by Shealah Craighead. to sexual egalitarianism, but on the autonomy of religious Forty years ago Francis its exertions are primarily de- institutions. Claiming a vested Schaeffer, from his L’Abri Alpine fensive. Although the Religious interest in perpetuating, much headquarters in Switzerland, in- Left is the more outspoken crit- less aspiring to lead, Western spired the creation of modern ic of Western Civilization as Civilization is rare. They have conservative Christian political oppressive and genocidal, it too quickly accepted the prem- activism in America by extolling still unconsciously demands ise that that West, including the West’s Christian origins that America conforms to a America, is post-Christian and and urging a return to those Christian-originated political likely spiraling into ever-great- guiding principles. Political theology. er rebellion against the created defeats on social issues have order. The Benedict Option, persuaded leading conserva- American religious conserva- conceived by Rod Dreher and tive Christian voices that this tives, in contrast, now typically inspired by Alistair McIntyre, project to reclaim Western see themselves in exile and un- proposes that Christians should Civilization is over, now re- der virtual house arrest within focus on rebuilding the church placed by self-preservation. a hostile culture. At most they and its accompanying spiritual hope for legal defenses against institutions as the West enters Christian leaders in America’s judicial and regulatory assaults into greater spiritual darkness. past, although living in more

45 troubled times, were once much take quite seriously the church’s leaders of civilization. The West more confident in Western role in renewing and leading of course is no longer confined Civilization, which they rec- society, reshaping it to align to Europe and the Americas. Its ognized was embedded within with Gospel aspirations. It’s not principles to various degrees the church’s own providential uncommon, if arguably unwise, surge around the world. Even story. As they imagined it, the for African nations with their the worst autocrats and klep- West was the earthly political burgeoning Christian major- tocrats, even as they sometimes projection of the church, and ities to legislatively inscribe persecute the church, still con- the civilization provided a pro- Christianity by name into their form unconsciously in countless tective umbrella under which constitutions and jurisprudence. ways to Christian Civilization’s the world would be evangelized They believe that societies must and Christianized, spiritually at their core be centered around influence. They eat the fruit and politically. They were not a spiritual message. Western even as they deny the tree. entirely wrong. One third of Christians have since lost that the planet is now affiliated with faith. The West was never and will Christianity, including well over never be thoroughly Christian. 2.5 billion people, thanks to America’s Religious Left her- Led and populated by sinners, Western missions and, it must alds multiculturalism and di- it has always been corrupt and be admitted, Western colonial- versity as civilizational markers. unfaithful. The church even at ism of the past. Today, Global America’s Religious Right large- the apogee of Christendom was South Christians outnumber ly cedes this point and speaks of never wholly virtuous or whol- Western Christians, a ratio Christian Civilization only in the ly wicked, never had complete that will continue to increase. past tense, and sometimes not societal control, and never at Politically, Christian-nurtured even positively. Some conserva- its best harmonized the Gospel Western economic and politi- tive Christians, and many on the with every aspect of human so- cal concepts have been univer- Left and in the middle, murmur ciety. Yet the West, as byproduct salized, however haphazardly. against the Constantinianism and partner with Christendom, The Western notion of material that birthed the West by suppos- progress that Gandhi errone- edly corrupting and exploiting is a real and living organism that ously disparaged as soulless and the church for the imperial proj- was and is providential in pur- secular is now the guiding force ect. For them, spiritual recovery pose, and whose destiny should of global culture, including in means rejecting and escaping still be a source of inspiration his own India, plus China and the vestiges of Constantine’s and delight. other ancient civilizations where dark bargain. Christian communities remain Trump’s Warsaw celebration of relatively small if growing. Indifference and willful mis- Western Civilization may or may understandings about Western not reignite conscious Christian Amid this mostly unantici- Civilization by Western interest in the West as an on- pated global success, Western Christians are self-defeating going project for the church. Christian leaders are san- and unfaithful to the church’s But even if Christians will not guine and mostly unapprecia- social vocation. The church, acknowledge the West as their tive of their own civilization. by birthing and sustaining the own, the West is inextricably They barely speak anymore of West, has created a providential woven into the church’s eternal Western Civilization, much less gift for social justice, prosperity, story, with glorious chapters yet Christian Civilization. The proj- human dignity, and equality. unwritten. Christian leaders, ect of civilization as a spiritual The West’s many failures to endeavor that should engage conform consistently to its own ecclesial and intellectual, should the church is largely denied or highest ideals do not negate step forward into their respon- at least ignored. Similar indif- those ideals. sibility for leadership and stew- ference to civilization-building ardship of the West. Contrary through the Gospel’s power, The fruit of Christian civiliza- to despairing conventional wis- with counsel and leadership tion-building and its ideals are dom, it’s not too late. from the church, is not com- underappreciated. Christians mon amongst the leaders of in the West, particularly in Mark Tooley is president exponentially growing Global America, need to regain their of the Institute on Religion & South churches. Christians in gratitude, their hope, and their Democracy, and the editor of sub-Saharan Africa especially confidence as builders and Providence.

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