Owing Each Other a Terrible Loyalty

The first thing to say then from a religious perspective is that democracy is antithetical to theocracy. Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said, “Religion begins in mysticism and ends in politics.” Some ecstatic experience gives birth to new spiritual insights that become institutionalized in ritual, doctrine, and ethical practices within defined communities of faith. But these inexorably bleed into questions of how to live in the world with those who don’t share these convictions.

Since claims to religious truth cannot be validated by reason accessible to all, democracy invites everyone—believers and unbelievers alike—to participate in a governing process that promotes the common good. This will necessarily mean that we will not all get our way, even if we think our view is supported by divine revelation. Religion has a permitted but not privileged voice in a democracy. In a theocracy, religion dominates others without their consent. One version of morality becomes binding on all.

In practical terms, too, theocracies always end up with hierarchies. Someone or some small group will claim access to the truth that is deprived to the masses. Whether monarchs or clerics, they are anointed with spiritual authority to rule over others politically. This runs counter to the spirit of democracy.

At the same time that democracy is not the rule of the few (monarchy or oligarchy), it is also not the tyranny of the majority. Minorities are protected and opponents are honored. John Adams famously said that ours is a “government of laws and not of men.”

By “laws” Adams was not just talking about having a constitution to guide us, criminal codes to protect society, and civil law to guard against violation of persons. Laws mean institutions and norms that we are all subject to. Institutions create the structure; norms give them life. Norms are unwritten rules of decency like mutual respect, tolerance for differences, and restraint in the use of power. We can’t have a healthy democracy while holding others in contempt, calling opponents crazy and unpatriotic enemies, or exploiting advantage with unbridled force.

Our American democracy is sometimes claimed to be born among Enlightenment thinkers who were deeply skeptical about religion. Yet religions have deep moral commitments to ideas like the inherent value and equality of every individual that undergird democracies and undermine autocracies.

All three Abrahamic religions originated at moments when peoples were suffering under oppressive regimes and denied their full humanity. All three have shown themselves vulnerable to the lure of authoritarianism, but their essential spirit is nonetheless democratic.

Jews have been incubating democracy in law-based, synagogue worship, communal organizations, and self-governing congregations for millennia. The majority of Muslims worldwide adhere to the basic practices of their faith under the guidance of spiritual teachers who are not rulers. And Christians, though historically susceptible to hierarchical power, initially were organized as egalitarian communities that shared one Spirit and followed Jesus together without human authority over them. In early America, churches like the Baptists and Congregationalists were a laboratory for democracy. If they could function without a pope or bishop, perhaps a country could do so without a king.

The third nationwide No Kings Day rallies will be held in cities across America on March 28. This uprising of the people is a defense of democracy. They will not only be protesting a president who admires dictators more than democrats; they will be renewing their commitment that this form of government “shall not perish from the earth.”

The renewing of democracy will require more than grand gestures of great gatherings. It will take small acts of kindness, neighbors caring as much about the wellbeing of others as themselves, and citizens doing their public duty dutifully. It will also require sacrifice of privileges that have benefitted some at the expense of others. We are due for a major upheaval in the way our society defines, produces, and distributes goods and services. But shared responsibility will lead to the widespread welfare that humanity needs to survive. 

The witty British journalist and social critic G. K. Chesterton wrote a satirical novel titled The Man Who Was Thursday. It’s about a poet who believes the arts must promote order over chaos. At the behest of Scotland Yard, he infiltrates an anarchist group whose members go by code names according to the days of the week. Over time, he learns that all the others with such daily code names are also infiltrators and that those who suspect each other actually all desire order and goodness. In this context, Chesterton penned these oft-quoted words that apply to our own novel times: We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.

Paying our debts to one another-may preserve the ship of democracy and keep it afloat for the generations that follow. But even if democracy dies, doing so is our spiritual as well as civic obligation.

~ George A. Mason