C. S. Lewis on the problem with Big Government
October 15th, 2007 ~ La Vida Iglesia
More fun from a collection of his essays in this book. This essay is called “On the Transmission of Christianity” and was a preface to a book published in 1946 called “How Heathen is Britain?” The theme of how in the world Christians can hope to pass on the faith in a culture that seems so hell-bent is one we can all relate to, and Lewis’ opinion on how things were going is prophetic, given that he wrote this 60 years ago in the post-war days that Americans tend to look back on as a much better time for Christianity.
One of Lewis’ points in particular jumped out at me. Speaking of the thin hope of reaching new generations of schoolchildren, he writes this (emphasis mine):
It is unlikely that in the next forty years England will have a government which would encourage or even tolerate any radically Christian elements in its State system of education. Where the tide flows toward increasing State control, Christianity, with its claims in one way personal and in the other way ecumenical and both ways antithetical to omnicompetant government, must always in fact (though not for a long time yet in words) be treated as an enemy. Like learning, like the family, like any ancient and liberal profession, like the common law, it gives the individual a standing ground against the State. Hence Rousseau, the father of the totalitarians, said wisely enough, from his own point of view, of Christianity “I know nothing more opposed to the social spirit.”
Amen! This is my problem with the idea some Christians have that they can keep the liberal notion of a benevolent state and leave behind the secular aspects. Quite simply, I think they’re fooling themselves. You can’t have one without the other. The State will never be benevolent to actual Christianity — they’re in competition. A robust Nanny State can’t possibly exist alongside the kind of vigorous Christianity that views itself not as an afterthought or hobby but as a cultural force, “an army mighty with banners.” In trying to compromise, Christians have already ceded too many points that are essential for the spiritual well-being of the generation we hope to reach.
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October 28th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
My grandma left Russia in 1928 with my mother in a backpack (or so the family story goes) and she believed, to an extent, in the welfare state because of its anonimity. Yet at the same time she always called the state “an army without banners” because one never knows what it is really about or what it will do next. I am happy to believe in the sense of common pooling and I am happy to pay for education for children I don’t have or health care others genuinely can’t afford but at the same time centralisation terrifies me. It seems humankind can’t cope with a via media though - everything is either sink or swim by yourself or be controlled to the last firing of your last synapse by Nanny State. Sad.
October 29th, 2007 at 9:38 am
I tend to agree. We tend to go to extremes, I suppose just by (fallen) nature.
And maybe the rule of the wheat growing up alongside the tares applies here as well. There are some beneficial things that can come from good government — some of which can only come from a good government — and maybe it’s impossible not to have the bad things as well. It’s a matter of opinion whether the good outweighs the bad, and I think that a person’s life experience (and certainly your grandmother’s) will enter into that.
And I should be clear: when I talk about the wrong type of alignment with a secular culture, I’m not talking about public education, or even a sane and equitable solution regarding healthcare (if one can be found). But there has been a marriage of culture and politics in this country that means that there’s a lot of rhetoric coming our way that isn’t just bad politics, it’s downright heterodox. That’s the sort of thing I mean.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Afterthought, by the way — I think your grandmother’s expression about the state being an army without banners is quite profound.