Both the French and American constitution are quite similar dealing with secularism (18th century enlightment, Locke and Montesqieu). The US was the first to make a real difference between church and state, followed a couple of years later by the French revolutionairy constitutions (there have been 4 or 5 though :)).
Many “liberal” (liberal, not democratic) politicians or leaders, like Napoleon and Napoleon III have called upon God for protection of their country/troops, so this is not so strange. I don’t think religion itself is dangerous, not even on a state-level -personally I wouldn’t object to mention the catholic (or any) church into a European consitution-, all depends on how the leaders react to it. Jimmy Carter was also a very religious man, and probably he used the same words as GW Bush, but in a totally different context.
The words “liberté, egalité and fraternité” can’t be said in one phrase. Either you chose liberté (liberalism), egalité (socialism) or fraternité (catholicism). Liberty also means the right to have a religion, only it should be a secular religion (laïcisme in french I think).
Same for the US constitution. Thomas Paine’s essay “Common Sense” advocated seperation of church and state, or at least tollerance towards other religions. However, the Quakers (fundamentalists) were the first ones to condemn slavery, and not the liberal politicians. Strange though … The US constitution however is still the most democratic and liberal (more so than the French).
Actually constitutions are very interresting to read :)!
And nazism and communism were anti-religious AND anti-liberal indeed, in theory. But Stalin has used the Russian Orthodox Church to unite Russians during Operation Barbarossa, and Hitler did the same.
Sign In
