> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of John D. Giorgis
[snip]
> I think a much more interesting question is not why predominantly Islamic
> States are not democratic, but why so many Christian States are
> democratic.
An interesting question, certainly... and the answer has become very clear
to me in recent years and months as I have studied the Reformation and its
impact on politics and economics. To summarize very simply, the Reformation
denied the authority of the church and put it in the hands of ordinary
people. Coming out of that tradition, especially Calvinism, the Puritans
were named for their further rejection of the Anglican Church's imitation of
a number of the medieval Church of Rome's practices (they sought to
"purify" the church of all papacy, hence "puritan"). The Founding Fathers,
to use that slightly outdated phrase, of the United States were rather
clearly influenced by Protestants who sought to ensure that the
concentration of power that occurred in the Church of Rome would not be
repeated. That goal is the birthplace of democracy and capitalism.
My interest in this history is to see the role of printing technology, to
compare it to the Internet today. What I see now is that the monopoly of
the church has been replaced by oligopolies of huge corporations, whose
concentrated power is most harmful in big media. It is little wonder to me,
thus, that spiritual communities are deeply critical of the media today.
And for what it's worth, I believe that over time, the Internet will affect
these oligopolies as printing affected the Church of Rome's monopolies,
decreasing their power tremendously.
Once again I write in response to JDG without argument. Goodness (pun
intended). A little scary, though. John, feel free (liberty!) to disagree
in response, lest I have to double-check my voter registration.
Nick
