SouthernWorldwide.com – Bishop Robert Barron is set to speak at President Donald Trump’s “Rededicate 250” prayer event on the National Mall this weekend, where he will discuss the “marginalization of God” and religion in society, which he views as a significant “threat to democracy.”
The “Rededicate 250” event is a prominent prayer gathering scheduled for Sunday, aimed at “rededicating” the nation as “One Nation Under God” in anticipation of America’s 250th anniversary. This event, organized by the Trump-aligned nonprofit “Freedom 250,” is expected to feature President Trump, members of the White House Cabinet, and prominent faith leaders.
“God is essential to the very foundations of American democracy,” Bishop Barron stated. He elaborated that while many threats to democracy are discussed, the marginalization of God is a truly significant danger.
Barron explained that many contemporary societal problems stem from this cultural disconnect from God.
“Take God out of the equation, what are you left with? Radical self-choice. Welcome to wokeism. Welcome to the culture of self-invention. ‘I make myself up, values is up to me, my gender, it’s up to the whole structure of my life, it’s my choice,’” he said. “That’s deadly to our democracy.”
“Religion belongs to the very fabric of our democracy, that’s the theme of my talk,” he emphasized.
Bishop Barron indicated that he would commence his address by referencing Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
“We know from the early written versions [that] Lincoln didn’t have the phrase ‘under God’ when he said that this nation might have a new birth of freedom. But when he delivered the speech, he said this nation ‘Under God might have a new birth of freedom.’ So, what prompted Lincoln, as he was giving the Gettysburg Address, to add that phrase?” he questioned. “You could say, ‘Oh, it’s just a little pious declaration.’ No, no, no, I think that’s born of a very, very deep and correct intuition, America is a nation that’s conditioned by these great values, moral values, spiritual values that come finally from God.”
Barron further argued that a cornerstone of American ideals – the principle that all men are created equal – is a unique concept facilitated by Christianity.
“We’re not equal in any way. Look at the classical political philosophers; they would never affirm the equality of all people. We’re not equal in intelligence or moral virtue or beauty or courage or anything. We’re radically unequal. So where does this come from?” he inquired. “Why would you go from we’re not equal at all to it’s ‘self-evident that we’re equal’? And the answer is in that little word, ‘created,’ that ‘all men are created equal.’ So, despite all our differences, we are all equally children of God and then endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.”
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This concept of possessing inalienable rights, Barron posited, is a distinctly Christian idea that has been integrated into American values.
“No one in the classical world believed that. Aristotle didn’t, Plato didn’t. Cicero didn’t, none of them,” he explained. “Look in societies more recent that don’t believe in God. Go to Soviet Russia, go to communist China, everyone has rights? No way.”
“Where do they come from?” he asked. “Well, Jefferson gives away the game. They’re endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Take the creator out of the equation, rights will go out in a minute. So, Lincoln’s intuition to say that this nation under God would have a new birth of freedom, God is essential to the very foundations of American democracy. If you marginalize and privatize religion, democracy is in danger.”
Barron also intends to address the nature of freedom itself during his speech.
“It’s a very modern sense of freedom that it means spontaneous choice, I’m free if I could just do whatever I want,’” he stated. “But see, the founding fathers were trained both biblically and classically; they did not understand freedom that way.”
“Freedom is more like this, it’s an ordering of desire toward the good, so as to make the achievement of the good first possible and then effortless.”
He offered mastering a new language or the piano as illustrative examples of this concept.
“Think of the way you become a free speaker of a language, not by talking any old way you want, but rather internalizing the laws of the language. How do you become a free player with the piano? Not by doing whatever you want, but by internalizing the structure of music.”
“That’s the kind of freedom we’re talking about,” he concluded. “It’s the moral freedom to become the person you’re meant to be, that you can now effortlessly achieve the good, that this nation under God might have a new birth of freedom.”
