Meacham: ‘Democracy and Christianity Have a Great Deal in Common, It Requires Us to See One Another as Fellow Children of God’

EXCERPT:

MEACHAM: "Well, you have, you know, democracy and Christianity. And this is not to get into Christian nationalism and the often unhealthy blending of faith and power politics, but democracy and Christianity have a great deal in common. It requires us to see one another as fellow children of God. And that may sound grand or soft somehow, but that is, in fact, the motive force of democracy. If I don’t respect you and your dignity before the law, and you don’t respect mine, then we fall into a state of nature. We fall into a struggle, a constant battle to get what we want. And the message, both of the Hebrew bible and the New Testament, is that you can’t simply take everything you want when you want it, that there is, in fact, a hierarchy of affections, that we have to control our appetites. And in doing so, we all have a better chance of filling those appetites. So it’s not just about being great people, but it is about seeing one another in a way that enables us to, at least, if we don't love our neighbor, we should at least try."