The Tea Party can rightfully be described as a mass movement of fiscal conservatives simultaneously upset and galvanized by our nation’s outrageous spending.
That said, the Tea Party is a full spectrum conservative movement that includes many socially conservative loud-and-proud Christians. About one week ago, your favorite Save Jersey Jewish contributor spent the day at a Tea Party conference aimed at these conservative compatriots.
The conference was entitled ‘God and Country’ and was organized by the Northern New Jersey Tea Party. It was a day dedicated to examining the Christian roots of our great nation and celebrating freedom of religion. The speakers and over 55 attendees came from a variety of denominations but were all united in their defense of the First Amendment.
The speakers, including lawyer Demetrios Stratis from the Defense Alliance Fund, talked about attacks on Christianity in the public arena, what they had done to defend it, and what we could do to preserve the First Amendment’s promise of the free exercise of religion.
Other speakers highlighted the Christian roots of the nation and the dichotomy between secular and theist world views. Secular conservatives like myself weren’t thrown under the bus as inauthentic, but were described as rationalists who understand economic law in a similar manner to physical laws such as gravity, clear and self-evidently. That this nation was founded by Christians on Christian principles was obvious and accepted by the participants.
Though no Christian or even theist, I have long argued that this country has historically been and should remain a Christian nation.
Natural law theory, though not requiring a god, originated from Christian thinkers as did the notion of unalienable individual rights. Our Founding Fathers, though many were deists and churchgoing Christians, were grounded in the language of the Old and New Testaments. And in our frontier days, the only day homesteaders would see more than just their own families was Sunday at church. Our universities were founded as theological centers, and the Old and New Testaments were and continue to be used as guides and moral barometers (sometimes poorly, no doubt).
The fact that our nation’s Christian foundation is under siege was discussed at length at the conference. Regardless of ones faith (or lack thereof) this should be alarming to all Americans, for if the faith from which the notion of liberal democracy and personal liberties comes from is attacked because it has fallen out of vogue, then what will stop the juggernaut of the state? Which group will fall out of favor next?
United by moral values and fiscal discipline these socially conservative Tea Partiers showed they are dedicated to fighting for fiscal responsibility, freedom of conscience, and our Christian foundation. I say Amen!
