Flawed Freedom
Democracy can’t succeed through a constitution with an official religion
BY HEIDI HARRIS

As Iraqis draft a constitution and embark on the road to self government, we must keep in mind that this will be a very long road. Our nation was founded largely by Christians, not as a Christian nation, but by people who understood biblical truth. This is very important for many reasons, not the least of which included the creation of our constitution. Our founders understood one important fact very clearly: mankind is naturally sinful, and without proper rules in place, power will eventually be wrested away from the many and held by a few.

All conflicts throughout human history are based on three basic desires: the money, the women, and the land. Regardless of whether it’s the Cowboys and the Indians, the Hutus and the Tutsis, or the Hatfields and the McCoys, man’s basic nature and desire for power doesn’t change. Since our founders understood this, they built safeguards into our system of government. Separation of powers assures that no one has the power to do too much good, or too much harm. 

Denial of man’s basic nature always dooms a nation to failure. This becomes especially critical when you’re talking about drafting a constitution in a Muslim country. Muslims believe that mankind is born without sin, and therefore the only way to assure perfection and salvation is by preventing any opportunity to fall into temptation after birth. Therefore, Islamic governments oppress women, censor media and entertainment, and attempt to remove virtually any freewill decisions from its people. This is, of course, done under the guise of “Allah’s will.” 

Christians believe that we are all born with a sin nature, and therefore only belief in the Savior’s work on our behalf will ensure salvation. We can’t earn it; it’s already been paid in full. We’re not walking around panicked that one slip-up could condemn us to hell. Therein lies the major difference between Christianity and the religions of the world. Christians acknowledge our flawed nature, but we want to live according to God’s laws, so we do our best to live our lives honorably. In other words, we control our behavior internally, for a higher purpose, not just because we may wind up in the dictator’s torture room, or because we’ll miss out on the virgins if Allah finds out. 

Internal control is essential to maintain order in a free society. When you consider how much personal freedom we have in America, and all of the available avenues for criminality, if most if us weren’t controlled internally (because stealing, rape, etc. are wrong) we’d have complete chaos in America. There simply aren’t enough police officers to control all of us. 

People who have lived under dictators have entirely different ways of thinking. When Iraqi nationals come here and live under our laws, they do fine for the most part. It’s not that a specific nationality is incapable of living by the rule of law, but when you take away the threat of death or torture, there are many whose behavior will spiral out of control. The trouble is, when you have adults who have never learned to control their own behavior internally, and you remove the dictator (external control), you are guaranteed to have problems. 

Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the House in the early days of our nation, put it best: ”Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them, or a power without them, either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man, either by the Bible or the bayonet.” When you have a nation full of Muslims who truly believe the only way to protect people from sin is to through suppression of freewill, rather than allowing for separation of powers, I don’t have much faith in any constitution they would draft. 

As of this writing, according to Article 2 of the Iraqi constitution, “Islam is the official religion of the state and is the basic source of legislation.” Great. Whose version of Islam are we referring to? 

I have heard commentators on both sides of the aisle defend this constitution, promising that there are safeguards in place to prevent persecution of non-Muslims. The Iraqis can talk all day long about making provisions for minority rights and religious freedom, but Article 2 says it all. 

Did we lose over 1,800 brave souls to create a theocracy? I thought our goal was a Democratic Iraq. In case no one’s noticed, there is no freedom in any Muslim country. If the Iraqis finalize a constitution that does not make allowances for religious and personal freedom, including acknowledgement of man’s sinful nature, and the fact that religious leaders aren’t infallible, we may well wind up with a worse situation in Iraq than we had ever imagined. LW

Listen to Heidi Harris on KXNT 840-AM’s morning show from 5 to 9 a.m. Contact her at heidi.harris@infinitybroadcasting.com.