Individual Rights + Limited Government Not Enough

“Unless a political order is clear about the identities and rights of the diverse institutions of society, most of which are not political,  then the mere combination of individual-rights protections and a procedurally limited government will not be sufficient to assure justice to a differentiated society.” — James Skillen, Recharging the American Experiment, p.29.

Twelve Reasons to Love the U.S.A., VIII

“8.  America is a world leader in scholarship and invention.  The United States is home to the world’s finest collection of universities and research institutions.  Name just about any subject–from ancient philosophy to quantum physics–and chances are good that leading authorities work here.  The record of American inventions and discoveries goes on and on, from the mechanical reaper to the microchip.  American medical research facilities are among the best in the world.  The United States leads the world in space exploration.  The computer revolution started here.” — William J. Bennett, The American Patriot’s Almanac, p.35.

Not Fundamentally a Secular Country

“Some people cite the absence of religious language in the Constitution and the provisions of the First Amendment as evidence that America is fundamentally a secular country.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  At the end of the eighteenth century, religious establishments existed throughout European countries and in several American states.  State control of the church was a key element of state power, and the established church, in turn, provided legitimacy to the state.  The framers of the American Constitution prohibited an established national church in order to limit the power of government and to protect and strengthen religion.  The ’separation of church and state’ is the corollary to the identity of religion and society.  Its purpose, as William McLoughlin has said, was not to establish freedom from religion but to establish freedom for religion.”  – Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?, p.85.

On America’s Core Culture

“America’s core culture has been and, at the moment, is still primarily the culture of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century settlers who founded American society.  The central elements of that culture can be defined in a variety of ways but include the Christian religion, Protestant values and moralism, a work ethic, the English lanugage, British traditions of law, justice, and the limits of government power, and a legacy of European art, literature, philosophy, and music.  Out of this culture the settlers developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the American Creed with its principles of liberty, equality, individualism, representative government, and private property.” — Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?, p.41