Christianity and the European Union
Really, one thought that the debate was closed: Christianity should not be mentioned in the preamble of the European Constitution. So why open the debate again? Those, who argue for a reference to Christianity owe us an answer to two fundamental questions:
— What kind of Christianity are we talking about? It is that of the medieval popes? that of the patriarchs in Constantinople? that of Luther or Calvin?
— Who is going to define what Christianity is today? Pope Benedict XVI? Hans Küng? Ian Paisley? The archbishop of Canterbury or the Danish Lutheran bishops?
Although we all believe in the same God and all regard Jesus as our Saviour, Christianity is more than one faith. There have always been many Christianities, so without a more specific definition, the claim is, in fact, political vapourings.
That the majority of the Union-states have some kind or another of a Christian cultural background is indisputable, but has it always been positive? The criminal register of Christianity, and especially that of the Catholic Church, is interminable. Besides crusades, religious wars, forced conversions, burnings of heretics, etc. one may ask, if the dictatorships of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Salazar and Pavelic were not a consequence of the authoritarian and totalitarian mentality which up till the Second World War was dominant inside the Roman Catholic Church (and to some extent still exists among Church leaders and Organizations like Opus Dei)?
And still worse: could the Nazi extermination of more than 6 mill. Jews ever have been effectuated without the Catholic Church's traditional anti-Semitism, an anti-Semitism which goes back to the time of the New Testament? In saying this, I will not make the Catholic Church responsible for the horrible crimes of the Nazis and their Fascist followers, I only want to stress that the Church had a responsibility in creating that mental climate which made the extermination acceptable in the eyes of many Catholics.
Furthermore, that the present European culture is based on Christian values is a truth with modifications. All EU-countries are democracies, accepting concepts as tolerance, freedom of religion and human rights. They come, however, from the ancient Greeks and Romans and can therefore not be regarded as specific Christian values. Do not forget, that the popes time and again have condemned freedom of religion and humans rights as being heretic concepts. The same was the case with the liberal democracy.
The view on women is another example. How many women follow the advice of St Paul today: "Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home" (1 Cor 14:34-35, King James' Version). Contrast the rights of women in modern societies not with the suppressing view on women, found in the Bible and the Christian tradition?
Raising children is a third example. Here with a quotation from the Book of Sirach the Catholic Church still recommends fathers to flog their children regularly (The World Catechism, § 2223). The modern welfare-state, which takes from the rich and gives to the poor, is a fourth example. And how many do believe that our politicians (presidents, prime ministers etc.) are ordained by God and therefore ought to be obeyed in all instances? (cf. Rom 13:1-5). And lastly: in epistemology the Catholic Church talks about invariable, unchangeable and indisputable truths. One wonder, where we would have been today if scientists since the Enlightenment have not rejected this concept of absolute truths?
Actually, maybe Islam had had a greater importance than Christianity for the European development. Not Islam as a faith, but as a culture (if one can distinguished?). It is a fact, that it was people for whom Allah was God and Mohammed his prophet, who in the Late Middle Ages gave us our numbers and this system of number-position, after which every mathematical calculation since has been made. Where would we have been in the field of medicine, science and technology today if we still were forced to use the Roman numbers? Just try to multiply CMXXVII and MMDCCXLIII.
A constitution which makes a reference to Christianity, or God, can, in fact, never be unanimously accepted. France will impose its veto. Like it or not today we live in a secularised, pluralistic, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural Europe, for which reason the political aim of a constitution is to connect, not to divide people. The constitution ought to be for every man and woman, young and old, living inside the European Community - with no regard to their religious faith or non-religion. Personally, my Christian faith will not be affected or damaged by lacking a reference to Christianity in the constitution. But that seems the faith of others to be.
It would have a big symbolic value, they argue. But if this should be true why not claiming that the European coins as those in the US ought to have imprinted the words "In God We Trust"? That would really be an effective symbolic value in a capitalist society! But would it make us better Christians? I doubt, because I do not regard President Bush as a better Christian than Danish Mrs. Karin Riis-Joergensen, a liberal member of the European Parliament. On the contrary! Ought we not instead to say with Erasmus of Rotterdam, that it is not what we confess, but by what we are doing that makes us Christians? Or as Pope Benedict writes in his book on Jesus: "Mit einem Wort: die wahre "Moral" des Christentums ist die Liebe" (p. 130: "With one word: the true "Ethics" of Christiany is Love"). Instead of wasting our time discussing symbolic values let us use our energy to create a Europe with care, compassion, and love.
Kaare Rübner Joergensen
MA in history
Chair of VEOK (Vi Er Ogsaa Kirken; part of the International Movement We Are Church)
Denmark
(A comment in the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad September 4th, 2007)
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