Did you catch the news that France's president Nicolas Sarkozy has instructed French schools to teach every fifth grader 'to learn the life story of one of the 11,000 French children killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust'? It seems to have created quite a stir in France, according to the NY Times article. Sarkozy went a bit further, too, by stating that 'the Nazi belief in a hierarchy of races “radically incompatible with Judeo-Christian monotheism.” I wasn't aware, but it seems Mr Sarkozy has been talking a bit more about religion:
But there is something else. Mr. Sarkozy is shattering another
barrier in French intellectual life: religion. His public statements on
the subject seem to reflect a deeply held belief that religious values
have an important place in everyday French society — an iconoclastic
position for a French politician.
When Mr. Sarkozy was
made an Honorary Canon of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome last
December, he proposed a “positive secularism” that “does not consider
religions a danger, but an asset.” He was even more provocative in
declaring that “the schoolteacher will never be able to replace the
priest or the pastor” in teaching the difference between good and evil.
In
Saudi Arabia last month, he infused his speech with more than a dozen
references to God, who, he said, “liberates” man. He also said last
month that it was a mistake to delete the reference to “Europe’s
Christian roots” from the European Constitution.
In France, a
country where one’s religion is typically kept private, Mr. Sarkozy
heralds his religious identity, referring publicly to his Jewish
grandfather and wearing his Roman Catholicism on his sleeve.
“I
am of Catholic culture, Catholic tradition, Catholic belief, even if my
religious practice is episodic,” he wrote in a book of essays in 2004.
“I consider myself as a member of the Catholic Church.”
Well, France's 'secularists' and 'political opponents' set off alarms about all this, and eventually started blaming the United States:
Other analysts blamed the confessional approach of the United States
for infecting Mr. Sarkozy’s thinking. “Listen, it’s in the air of the
times,” said Régis Debray, the philosopher and author, on France Inter
radio Friday. “There is a religious sentimentality, a pretty vague
religiousness, let’s say, in the world of show business, in the world
of business, that comes from America. It’s the neoconservative wave of
the born-agains.”
I can see why many in France might be uncomfortable with all this. I wouldn't want any US president dictating what should be taught in schools; that's a legislative action that ought to be made more by educators and parents, not politicians. Yet, I admire Sarkozy for not hiding his religious life from the world. He doesn't claim to be a perfect Catholic (who is?), but he acknowledges the positive role faith plays in his life and can play in society. Religion can be an asset, it can liberate, and it is at the root of much that is good in history and society.
And yes, religion can bind and suppress, it can be a drag on public policy, and many have suffered violence and tyranny in the name of this-or-that religion. That is also part of our history and our heritage. Like every other social movement, religion cuts both ways.
For those leaders and politicians who are religious, there is a fine line between religion that informs their decisions and religion that dictates their decisions. Hopefully, Sarkozy is tending towards the former and not the latter; and I hope the same holds true for our next US president.
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