The state and the common good

By Oskar Wermter SJ

Former US President George W Bush used to think naïvely that democratic rule comes natural: as soon as you remove some ugly dictator from power  constitutional democratic government will automatically take over. It will do nothing of the kind.

Democracy is the result of a long historical struggle. It rests on a foundation not of its own making, on values which in Europe and America were provided by a culture deeply influenced by Christianity.

This may sound strange: does not the modern, let alone post-modern secular mind insist on the separation of Church and state? Indeed it does. One of the cornerstones of our society, reflected in constitutional law, is freedom of religion. The Church herself has recognised that an imposed religion (for example in the form of a state church) does not only deprive citizens of their freedom, but impedes the Church as well.

After a long learning process the Church has recognised that competing for power (for example by clerics assuming political office) does not do her any good. The prophet is free to address abuse of power precisely because he is independent and detached from the power struggle.

Power is secular and it must not be given a religious gloss. The early Christians were beheaded, burnt or thrown to the lions precisely because they refused to worship the Divine Emperor and to submit to his absolute power. No ruler must claim divine status or appoint himself saviour of the world who alone knows our final destiny. Who could ever question his rulings, let alone contradict his claims? Secularising power means limiting it. In that sense Christians approve of the secular state.

The state is not an end in itself. It is a means towards an end. It is relative, not absolute. The government of the day can be judged by asking: does it serve its purpose? Is it useful?

Its purpose is the common good. It must serve the people. If it does not, it needs to be changed. As “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27), so was the state made for the people. It is an instrument. Persons are of such dignity and  value, they must never be mere tools for the state to use. A government can be discarded as useless, but not the people. You throw away the government, not the people whom it has failed to serve. Alas, exactly the opposite often happens.

Unless the state is built upon this foundation of profound respect for the dignity of the human person it will sooner or later become a monster swallowing up the people. And the citizens will live in solidarity and strive for the common good only if they have this profound respect for one another, including the unborn, the poor and the underprivileged, the mentally handicapped, the sick und dying.

Without this solidarity, why should anyone pay taxes, or accept laws restricting individual freedom, or defend the country, or preserve the natural environment for future generations?

This is a basic truth. It opens the eyes for justice, love and compassion. Without this fundamental goodness in people no state can last. In framing a constitution, based on human rights and duties, we presuppose that such goodness exists in people.

A world in which a few super-rich and excessively powerful turn the rest into mere “canon-fodder” or grist for their mills will just not work. Mere self-interest, such as ambition or greed, is destructive, as the recent global financial crisis has shown.

Maybe Zimbabwe has turned out to be a “failed state” because it lacks this foundation. The regime has no respect for truth, but spreads lies through the state media to the extent that it believes its own propaganda. As a result it loses touch with reality and lives in an illusionary world. It does not work for the common good — the people as a whole — but discriminates between friend and foe. It feeds its own and starves its enemies. It is not built on respect for all, but is driven by fear of strangers and racist hatred.

With this experience in mind,  “outlawing any rules originating from faith”, as Wolfgang Vogelbein wrote in his recent letter in The Southern Cross (Sept 9-15), and denying Christianity a positive role in the political life of the nation would be a disaster for South Africa.

The Church does not expect the state to help enforcing the Church’s moral code. But unless Christians act in the public sphere driven by their informed conscience the future of the country looks bleak. Ubuntu (or unhu, in Zimbabwe’s majority language Shona) relates to the Christian concept of solidarity. It needs to be widened to transcend clan and ethnic group. We need solidarity that covers the nation, crosses national boundaries, even encompasses the entire globe.

As such ubuntu/unhu is part of the spiritual heritage of Africa. It needs to be purified and transformed. Anything that has life must grow and develop. Therefore ubuntu/unhu must not go, as Mr Vogelbein urges. Instead people must re-learn it in a new context.

The dignity of the human person “created in the image of God” is the basis of human rights without which no democracy can function. If the spiritual root of human rights withers (that is, the Judaeo-Christian view of the human person which is compatible with the African view), human rights will no longer be respected.

If human rights go, the human person will be endlessly manipulated and be at the mercy of  the powerful who will “re-create people, re-shape and re-mould them, in their own image” and subject them to their own designs and purposes which is just another name for slavery.

This experiment need not be repeated. Zimbabwe has proven it does not work.

Fr Wermter is a Jesuit communications officer based in Harare.