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Is the U.S. to Britain as Islam is to Christianity? [1]

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Date: 2023-10-09  

The gospel of John begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word, or Logos in the original Greek, is Jesus, who in Christianity is both the medium and the message.

Islam also has a Logos; as in Christianity, it is supposed to be eternal and to have been with God from the beginning, but this Word is not a person but a book: the Qur’an. Muslims say the Qur’an is the literal word of God, spelled out in perfect Arabic, “the tongue of the angels”, for the instruction and guidance of humanity.

From that difference, I think, flows everything that distinguishes the one faith from the other. Sunni Islam, to which 90% of Muslims adhere, has developed from the Qur’an and the traditions of Muhammad a fixed and unchangeable code of law called Shari`a, and Islam stands first and foremost for the rule of law.

Christianity, by contrast, tends to favor personal rule; the largest of Christian denomination, Roman Catholicism, is organized as a hierarchy headed by a Pope who is the vicar of Christ and successor of Peter, about whom Jesus said “on this rock I will build my church.” In general, Christianity tends toward what I shall call monarchism, while Islam tends toward legalism.

There are, however, monarchist strains in Islam, particularly in Shi`ism, where there is a hierarchy headed by an Imam or by a council representing an absent Imam; and there are legalist strains in Christianity, particularly in Protestantism, which denies the Pope’s legitimacy and proclaims the doctrine of sola scriptura, making the Bible the supreme authority. Some Protestant churches go so far as to proclaim the “priesthood of all believers” and deny any hierarchy at all, making them very like Sunni Islam in their governance, if not their doctrines.

This Sunni-like Protestantism is, I think, reflected in American politics, while British politics remain rooted in traditional Christian monarchism. In Britain, office holders swear allegiance to the King, while in America they swear to uphold the constitution, our national scripture. While at first glance this difference seems trivial — both countries are, after all, democracies — I think it has profound implications for each country’s ability to respond to challenges and, therefore, for the future.

Ancient Romans understood that personal rule is more effective in a crisis than the rule of law, and therefore created the office of dictator. Dictators were not to serve for more than six months and a dictator typically resigned his office once the crisis that compelled his appointment had passed. In modern Britain, the dictatorship is that of Parliament, which is supreme, being bound only by its own traditions and precedents, and only as far as it chooses to follow them. While many Americans would feel uncomfortable with such an arrangement, it has served the British people well enough. Brexit notwithstanding, Britain remains a functional democracy.

The United States went the other way, enshrining a written constitution as its supreme authority. Like the authors of Shari`a a thousand years ago, the creators of the United States constitution etched into stone rigid and unyielding definitions, prescriptions, and limits; the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the military, but may neither declare war nor make peace; all bills concerning money must originate in the House of Representatives; Congress shall make no law concerning an establishment of religion; et cetera. And as the result of this legalism, we saw during the Covid pandemic absurd scenes such as judges abrogating state governors’ decrees concerning public health on constitutional grounds. If the crew of the Titanic had fought one another over the arrangement of the deck chairs as the ship sank, it could have been no more ridiculous.

The problem with legalism is its inflexibility. In a life or death emergency, one cannot stop to debate the law, but must do what needs doing. The American system, whether in response to Covid, climate change, or corruption, has repeatedly failed to rise to the challenge. When six judges decree that an asshole’s right to carry a gun trumps — pun intended — the right of children to grow up in safe neighborhoods, and that decision is allowed to stand, the system has failed. When a court exalts the rights of billionaires to buy elections over the rights of the larger community to government that acts in its best interests, and that decision is allowed to stand, the system has failed. When two Presidents, one of them the most unqualified candidate in the country’s history, are elected in as many decades by a minority that is not even a plurality, the system has failed. When a majority of the Senate is elected by a minority of the people, and millions of American citizens are denied any representation at all because of where they live, that is a travesty.

We are following the jot and tittle of the law to our own destruction, even as Canadians, who have no qualms about altering their constitution as best suits them, are laughing at us.

Its worth comparing the histories of Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle East over the centuries. The Muslims, once they had perfected their law code, shut down science and closed their minds. Europeans, on the other hand, developed new technologies, new institutions, and new ways of thought, not hesitating to question even the basic doctrines of their faith in pursuit of truth.

It seems to me that in response to the challenges we now face, we need to be a bit more monarchist and a bit less legalist. The constitution of 1789 may have been the perfect compromise for the country as it was then; today, however, it is not holding up well. If we don’t decide what to establish in its place, I fear someone else will, and the result will be TOO monarchist — a rejection of democracy rather than an adaptation of it.

What do y’all think?

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