Be Like Ben this Easter!

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COMMENT, Global, Easter — As we sit down and eat our chocolate eggs, and hot cross buns, there is much to be said about Easter and Christianity.

At this time of year, with also various Jewish and Muslim festivals, it seems natural to question one’s faith.

Yet tolerant Christianity is so central to our civilized Western world, as to be indivisible from it.

We forget the Western World is laid of Christian stone…

Laws are a substitute for basic Christian values, in a society of solid values, laws are needed less. For values, not laws, govern behavior. Let us examine practical Christianity this Easter through that most practical of Americans, and world statesmen, Ben Franklin.

During a conversation about Western values last night about today’s world, I was reminded of Ben Franklin’s Deist religious views:

“I grew convinc’d that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life.”

Further on in his Autobiography, he also went on to say:

“Certain actions might not be bad because they were forbidden by it, or good because it commanded them, yet probably these actions might be forbidden because they were bad for us, or commanded because they were beneficial to us, in their own natures, all the circumstances of things considered.”

In short, Franklin believed in God on a moral basis; a view supported by many scholars interpretations of his life and times.

God and Christian Values on a Moral Basis

A moral basis. That a common God, although through different churches, allowed men to behave in a more moral fashion in public, perhaps even shaping their private behaviors.

Man must work for a common good, in service to God.

This was to some extent the basis of the Enlightenment. Locke, Hume, Smith and Franklin all had far more to say than modern business or political scholarship that distorts their words. All believed in a better world.

Father of capitalism, Smith, in particular, believed in a common good. The much quoted ‘invisible hand’ is a misrepresentation of a minor idea within Smith’s work.

The common good only makes sense in a world of morals and ethics. Without a Christian base these morals and ethics make no sense. It is Christianity, and a protestant work ethic, coupled with British laws and governance, that makes American ‘laissez-faire’ economic system work.

Yet like so many great intellects Smith’s ideas have been distorted by demagoguery to purport something that is not true, to serve the economic purposes of demagogues and merchants of Mammon.

Franklin believed in a better society

Franklin’s belief was that a society that believed in God was a better, more polite, moral and better educated society. By and large, if separation of Church and State is maintained, I would have to agree.

Franklin was a printer, a tradesman, a teenage runaway, not a wealthy intellectual. His start in life was not auspicious, yet he was one of the most important men of the last few centuries.

Jesus said that to be Christian one does not need to attend Church. This was Franklin’s view and practice, he was in important ways a religious man, yet rarely attended Church sermons, except where they were of accomplished orators.

Too often, Christianity has negative connotations based on the actions of some churches or parishes, not on the scriptures themselves. Scriptures are complex and layered, and require intelligent scholarship to interpret.

Franklin also held great fears for the morality of his world. Many of his American contemporaries tried to set him up for treason later in life. The Revolution and birth of the United States was no certainly no smoother than recent history.

Yet, Franklin is remembered today. Largely because Franklin based his life simple concept of “being of service to others”.

Why does Christianity today face challenges?

The world at current seems in a decline away from the core tenets of Christianity, faith in God, humility, love of our fellow man.

The Pope’s view this Easter was individualism is to blame for the decline in civil society…

“The Pope said in his homily at St Peter’s Basilica that one could not be truly free without submitting to the will of God.

He decried “the temptation to be totally autonomous, to follow only one’s own will … to think that man cannot be completely man except through this unlimited freedom”.”

The Age newspaper, 21st March 2008

It is something obvious. The decline of community.

Our society is a tyranny of choices, creating a tyrannical society of the trivial.

Yet the strange aspect of that is that at the forefront in the decline of Christianity is the current US administration. These men do not have true faith in God.

No. They have so little faith they must go to War to ensure their wealth, whilst the USA seeks deeper and deeper into a economic malaise caused by massive debt.

A malaise that can be cured by more war, but wars are unpredictable events.

Ben Franklin had a quote about that, as well:

“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.“

Ben Franklin had faith, signing the Declaration of Independence, an act of faith in mankind and God alike.

Who will history remember?

Firstly as Ben’s deeds taught us have faith, and too little fear of tyrants, who when they die will find no gold waiting for them beyond the grave.

Like Lincoln or Washington after him, Franklin, as a statesman in service of America is remembered and quoted today.

A noble Washington declined increased powers for the good of the Republic. He did not seek to increase powers over all US citizens.

Or consider, that Christ was not an elected official, had no earthly power, yet his humanity as a prophet shaped the world for 2000 years.

This reverence we have is for men of faith. Their names still stir the emotions.

Will the current US administration attract such reverence as Franklin? They seek to usurp faith, usurp Jesus, and replace it with false fear.

What You can do…

This Easter instead resolve to look at the world anew, with fresh eyes. And a sense of reverence for this is God’s world not just man’s world.

Read the Bible. Delve into sections. Start with Mark or Matthew, these are accessible chapters of the New Testament, and most of us should be familiar.

If you do not wish to do this, take some quite time and try to connect to God. You do not need only to go to church to pray, however simply sitting in a Catholic church this Easter may connect you to greater experience.

We need a spiritual understanding of the world. This is lost in a world of constant noise and chatter. The TV and visual media distract us from what is important.

This Easter, like Franklin, turn off the TV and take time for quiet reflection. And think of the common good, and how you can be of service to your fellow man.

This can be your gift to our world.

Christopher Hire:

Author of the Global Innovation Review, and Chief Editor of this journal. Focussed on innovation, innovation cities and positive social change globally.

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