News | Politics
David Koyzis January 11, 2021 January 13, 2021
Capitol Hill Insurrection
President Trump's culture of contempt for U.S. political institutions led to last week's violence.
Cartoon by Schot, De Volkskrant, Netherlands.
In AD 410 Alaric led his army of Visigoths into Rome and ransacked the city. By then Rome was no longer the capital of the western Roman Empire, but this single event sent shock waves throughout the known world. How could the founding city of the greatest empire in history be so vulnerable to barbarian tribes who could scarcely be called civilized? As we know, pagan Romans argued that, because Rome had abandoned its ancient gods, the latter had abandoned the city to its fate. Many thought Christians especially culpable, because, a generation earlier, the Emperor Theodosius had proclaimed Christianity to be the state religion, thereby angering the gods. Augustine, bishop of the north African city of Hippo, took up the challenge to defend the Christian faith from pagan accusations. The result became a classic of western literature, De Civitate Dei, known in English as the City of God.
I thought of this historical event as our family watched on television the events unfolding in Washington, D.C., on January 6. We were, of course, horrified. It hardly seemed possible that a band of hooligans, egged on by the President of the United States, could invade Capitol Hill, breaching what we had assumed to be an effective security perimeter, and vandalize the offices of members of Congress. This is the sort of thing one associates with the Russian Federation in 1993, or a non-western country unschooled in the customs and constitutional procedures of democratic governance. In English-speaking democracies we have come to expect that all political actors of whatever partisan sympathies will play by the rules, acquiescing in the smooth transition of power once the electorate has made its decision at the polls. No one pretends that it's a perfect system, but, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, it is almost certainly the least worst of the political systems on offer in today's world.
Respect for the rule of law
If this is true – and I believe it is – then we all have an obligation to make it work, to respect the integrity of the processes, and to honour the rule of law, even when we disagree with specific laws and policies. The English constitution, to which we are heir, slowly developed a principle that is key to the successful function of our system of government, namely, that of loyal opposition. Admittedly, this has more relevance to a Westminster system such as Canada's, where the second largest party in the House of Commons is designated Her Majesty's Official Opposition. Yet even in a presidential system, where different parties may control the legislative and executive branches, majority and minority status still play a role, and allegiance to the Constitution must take precedence over partisan commitments – even more so over personal loyalty to a specific leader.
The events of January 6 have tested that principle in the United States of America, the country where I was born and raised. Since last November's election, we have been treated to the sorry spectacle of a sitting president refusing to concede his loss to his opponent, a circumstance almost entirely unprecedented in American history. In the normal course of events, a defeated incumbent president congratulates the victor, promises to support him, and urges Americans to acknowledge him as their president, even if they disagree with his policy priorities. They will, of course, continue to follow their own convictions about the nature of just governance, which means that they will indeed oppose, but in legal ways and according to the procedures laid down in the Constitution. In no case should they take the law into their own hands.
'Couldn't happen here'
Until recently I had assumed that a political culture of respect for the rule of law was securely established in the United States, due largely to its debt to the English constitution and to the long experience of representative government extending back to colonial times. While we might expect to hear of an attempted coup d'état in Pakistan or Bolivia, we knew that it couldn't happen here. Not in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, or the U.S. We're too politically stable and our constitutional traditions too resilient for that to happen.
Cartoon by Jeff Korterba, USA.
Yet what we must learn from January 6's events is that we can never afford take our political culture for granted. Professed conservatives are correct to argue that the edifice of civilization is precarious at best and that efforts at improvement may have the opposite effect from what is intended. Over the course of my lifetime, I've seen North American culture become coarser and cruder, with the media playing an outsized role in facilitating a climate of consumerism rather than public spiritedness. I cannot help contrasting, for example, the late President George H. W. Bush, who was a fighter pilot in the Second World War and served his country in a variety of offices before attaining the White House, to the current occupant, whose fame is due largely to starring in The Apprentice and his larger-than-life business ventures.
It is disappointing to see so many Americans, whose traditions should tell them otherwise, follow someone who has repeatedly shown contempt for their country's political institutions and has cultivated a climate of personal self-aggrandizement at the expense of the public good. Many of us feared that something like last week's events could occur under his tenure. I sincerely hoped that we were wrong, but, sad to say, we were not.
I will have more to say about all this in future Christian Courier columns, but I will end by observing that the system is badly broken. It is not working as America's founders intended it to work. In particular, the internal party reforms after 1968 upset the delicate balance between elected office-holders and the citizens they represent. This resulted in a system in which prospective candidates can reach the top without sufficient vetting to ensure basic competence, grasp of the responsibilities of office, and, dare I say it, patriotism.
David Koyzis
David Koyzis is a retired political science professor living in Hamilton, Ontario. He is the author of the award-winning Political Visions and Illusions (2nd ed., 2019) and We Answer to Another: Authority, Office, and the Image of God (2014). He has written a column for Christian Courier since 1990.
Post Tags:	#American#News
Will Young Students 'Zoom' This Fall?
Peter Schuurman September 7, 2020 October 30, 2020
Children, like puppies, are always zooming around. They zoom until they drop exhausted, and it's great fantastic fun. But Zooming with a capital Z – or whatever your video conferencing platform of choice may be – is not good for teaching students except as a last resort.
Church Life | Media & Culture | News | Politics
Changing winds of time in voting patterns:
Henk Smidstra September 26, 2016 January 14, 2021
For the Christian, young or old, it is increasingly important to know just what that good is that God requires in governance and requires of his servants the politicians; political philosophy is necessary as well as a hermeneutic of justice-in-love. It will be incumbent on the boomers to vote not simply out of custom and routine, or unreflectively for policies rooted in economic self-interest. Nor is the Millennial demand for authenticity and humanity sufficient as the only criterion for good governance.
Church Life | News | Politics
#LeadingJesusWay: Executives committed to servant leadership
J. Daniel Rollins September 11, 2017 January 14, 2021
For the past five years, a small group of CEOs in Minnesota have been retooling their company cultures toward Jesus-centric servant leadership, with significant results. An interview with Mark Deterding, author of the book Leading Jesus' Way, examines the faith-based servant leadership model these executives are using.
Church Life | News | Theology & Spirituality
Listening Well
Kristine O'Brien July 9, 2018 January 14, 2021
My children have always been "church kids." They are well-known and well-loved in the congregation. So imagine my surprise when my eldest daughter, who is now 19, said she feels like "youth in the church are just props."
Burmese pastor seeks to plant CRC in Indiana
Chris Meehan October 24, 2016 January 14, 2021
Pastor Siang Lian Hup hopes to move to Indianapolis, Indiana, later this year to start a Christian Reformed congregation among the growing Burmese population there.
News | Theology & Spirituality
My Garden Won't Save the World
Roland De Vries October 8, 2018 January 14, 2021
The truth is that I don't plant a garden because I think it will save the world or because I think it will feed my family – though it might make some small contribution on each of those fronts. Each year I know it will be a battle to give that plot the care it needs. I plant a garden because it is a tangible expression of God's grace – a grace that is seen and touched and tasted, as if sacramentally. God's love touchable.