We Know That You're Absolutely Correct

"We Know That You're Absolutely Correct"

The lady speaks on religion and the Founding. The trick here -- the magic trick, the illusion -- is the fact that there is no other faith but that which came out of the European, Christian tradition that is compatible with this particular kind of pluralism. America is a 'Christian nation' even if it is not: only Christianity, in 1776, could have considered a principle like anti-Establishmentarianism.

There is one clear competitor: China once knew a similar principle: it would permit Buddhists or Taoists or whatever other traditions of religion arose. Obviously that principle failed during the Maoist period. It seems to be reasserting itself now.

Still, Chinese pluralism was not in any sense at the root of the Founding; it is a similar tradition, but an entirely unrelated one. Our respect for its wisdom does not require us to set aside the fact that it had nothing whatsoever to do with the actual business of founding this nation, or establishing its fundamental principles.