America, the Biblical
David Aikman worked as a journalist for Time magazine from 1971 to 1994, including time as Beijing Bureau Chief. In his book titled The Beijing Factor, published in 2003, he wrote about a group of American tourists in China attending a lecture by a scholar from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The lecturer told his audience that his academy was challenged to discover why Europe rose to dominance over China in the 17th century after lagging behind it:
At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion. The Beijing Factor, by David Aikman, Page 5
The Chinese scholars recognized Judeo-Christian religion as a key cultural differentiator from the cultural tradition of China. Historically religion has played an essential role in Western politics and life. Nations have been founded and shattered on religious belief and religious freedom.
The American tourists listening to the Chinese scholar came from a tradition that treated religious belief as central to their daily lives. The Pew Research Center, which surveys religious practice, reported 61% of Americans believe God is all-powerful, compared to 25% in Western Europe. A 2024 U.S. survey by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found “roughly three in four Americans continue to identify with a specific faith tradition, and many Americans engage in religious practice routinely,” including regular attendance at services. A majority of Americans say that religion is important in their lives, including 13% of religiously unaffiliated.
Reference to God appeared among the writings of authors of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, and in speeches by U.S. presidents from the country’s founding. George W. Bush’s second inaugural address proclaiming “that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value” is drawn from the Torah of Moses. The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013, traced the adoption of Torah principles to 17th century England:
[The] historic encounter between Christians and the Hebrew Bible in the seventeenth century … led to the birth of liberty in both England and America. The Calvinists and Puritans who led both the English and American revolutions were saturated in the politics of the Hebrew Bible, especially of the book of Devarim [Deuteronomy]. In fact, the modern world offers as near as history comes to a controlled experiment in liberty. Of the four revolutions that mark modernity, two, the English (1640s) and American (1776), were based on the Hebrew Bible, and two, the French and the Russian, were based on secular philosophy, Rousseau and Marx respectively. The first two led to liberty. The second two ended in the suppression of liberty: in France in the Reign of Terror (1793-94), in Russia in the form of Stalinist Communism.
The U.S. Constitution and laws draw heavily on Judeo-Christian teachings. The Torah’s foundational principles of equality before the law, individual rights, the importance of justice and the rule of law are reflected in the Constitution and Bill of Rights: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Ten Commandments inspired the Founding Fathers in establishing the U.S. legal system. Prohibitions against murder, theft, and lying are considered fundamental moral principles of a just society.
Deuteronomy institutes a judicial system under which all people are equal under the law. Local tribunals heard civil cases, higher courts had jurisdiction over capital crimes, and the highest court held appellate jurisdiction. Compassion was a requisite for leaders of all levels. Judges were held to the highest level of compassion and moral conduct. Judges did not always meet those standards and were themselves judged. Disputes among scholars on the meaning of God’s laws were settled under the command to “follow the multitude,” the standard for majority rule.
Specific rules are set for the minimum number of witnesses in charges against a person; courts must show no favoritism; punishment must be commensurate with the crime. The Torah’s “an eye for an eye,” not to be taken literally, expresses the principle of compensation. The Torah in total is a commentary on how people are to relate to one another. It brings a balance between individual rights and social responsibilities. Those responsibilities include taking care of the disadvantaged, protecting widows and orphans, feeding the poor, and doing unto others as you would have done to yourself. Each person shares responsibility for society as a whole. The principle of separation of church and state originated with the Mosaic Code that made civil authority independent of the priesthood. Both the Torah and the U.S. Constitution are set up to create a better society based upon solid principles and with built-in methods to prevent and correct corruption.
In rejecting rule by a monarch, the Founding Fathers chose to be governed by principles of biblical origin. Those principles are solemnly regarded and expressed with pride. The freedoms they encompass are credited with unleashing the economic power that makes the U.S. the envy of countries and people around the world. In reality, those principles often are honored only in the breach. The equality that they promised can too easily succumb to the biases of one group against another, or be usurped by wealthy individuals and corporations, potentially transforming a democratic government into an autocracy.
During Biblical times, the Prophets served as the moral conscience of both the kings and the people. The Hebrew word for Prophet is Navi which means bringer (of message), not soothsayer (forecaster of the future). In the modern USA, there are similar individuals who have acted and act as the moral conscience of the nation. They bring correcting messages to both its leaders and people as a whole.
Judeo-Christian religious practice has not been adopted by the Chinese on the recommendation of the scholars of the Academy of Social Sciences. China has come to challenge the U.S. economically, politically, and militarily. Technological innovation will define the future, and it is there that competitive advantage is most critical. Technology has long been a strong suite for the U.S., putting people on the moon, defeating disease, raising living standards, and creating things that no one had imagined before. Expanding on that record of improvement in the quality of life demands renewed devotion to those biblical principles, not least the care for those less fortunate – the poor, the sick, the alone – and reversing growing inequality. That includes reclaiming patriotism, the sense of shared belonging, unity, and a grand narrative of a great nation leading the world into the future.
