The Nation's Pulse / Mr. Carter's Foreign Policy
Rusthoven, PeterJ.
THE NATION'S PULSE bs Peter J. Rusthoven Mr. Carter's Foreign Policy In its short time at the Nation's helm, the Carter Administration has already developed a certain reputation for shooting...
...Carter's chastisement of the Soviets on this score reflects that concern, and deserves our approbation and support...
...Brezhnev be miffed by such a policy, so be k. We are willing to negotiate despite our philosophical differences with the oppressive clique that currently rules his land...
...His remarks are moralistic, to be sure...
...but m speak forthrightly in defense of the human rights we cherish, on those occasions when such rights are trampled upon by other governments, is quite another...
...To judge our diplomatic efforts solely by such criteria as the number of agreements reached, or the number of confrontations smoothly handled, is to treat foreign affairs as a mechanistic exercise, devoid of substantive base or content...
...Finally, Jefferson never gave the slightest indication that in matters of this sort the rights of atheists or agnostics were being infringed...
...gious beliefs, for church attendance or nonattendance...
...To his credit, Mr...
...Weighing against the choice were such trifles as the nominee's lack of experience, his status as a conscientious objector, and a mildly checkered record for personal ethical purity, revealed most clearly by Sorensen's draftsmanship of Teddy Kennedy's Chappaquiddick apologia...
...Both lower and higher public education, each in its own way, were charged with conveying these to the young, either through prayers and Biblereadings, or through natural theology (a philosophical teaching), the morality common to all sects, and the most relevant political writings...
...Meanwhile--perhaps in an effort to curry additional favor with Young and thus Peter J. Rusthoven is a practicing attorney in Indianapolis...
...Accept this passage as it stands and you are compelled to reject as unconstitutional every mode, however slight, by which government assists (or expresses) religion...
...Presumably overwhelmed by the spirit ot ~rotherhood that pervades the edifice of iaternational community in Manhattan Young casually opined one day that the...
...This writer, of course, favors prudence in foreign affairs as much as the next man...
...Ambassador-as one friend of mine has remarked, the Russians have proved rather a stabilizing force in Hungary and Czechoslovakia as well...
...Carter's comments on human rights do not require greater carefulness...
...In some areas, no doubt, Mr...
...957-58) And two y~cars later, these startling plans were even more startlingly modified in one respect, as the following university regulation written by Jefferson indicates: Should the religious sects of this State, or any of them, according to the invitation held out to them, establish within, or adjacent to, the precincts of the University schools for instruction in the religion of their sect, the students of the University will be free, and expected to attend religious worship at the establishment of their respective sects, in the morning, and in time to meet their school in the University at its stated hour...
...On the contrary, the public need for a philosophical and religious belief in God required an obvious public preference for religion over non-religion or irreligion, and this preference Jefferson did not think inconsistent with the legal protection afforded even atheists within free society...
...In a report of 1822, Jefferson showed how far he was willing to accommodate the various religious sects at the new university...
...If Mr...
...Could this 30 The Alternative: An American Spectator May 1977...
...This could only mean that Virginia's nonestablishment rule did not bar such aid to all religions, thus confirming the definition of establishment proffered above...
...Carter's pronouncements are said to have jeopardized the progress of arms negotiations with the Soviets...
...ooo*o** * * * o * * * * * * * * o * * * o * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * - * * * * ~ * * - * * * * * * * ' * * * * * * * * * CHURCH AND STATE (continued from page 20) deserving equal treatment with belief (in applying V~ginia's constitution) would nullify any religious activity in the schools whatsoever...
...No person can be punished for entertaining or professing reli...
...Ironically, though, any number of commentators have voiced ponderous misgivings about Mr...
...Finally, Mr...
...Brezhnev's heated rejoinders, and the recent return of Secretary of State Vance empty-handed from Moscow, are put forth as specific evidence of this last danger...
...But any offense which Mr...
...In addition, Jefferson was willing to have the state assist the various sectarian religions equally at the University '--with public lands, public facilities, and a n ' 'expectation" that students attend for worship and instruction...
...Finally, with perfect logic, the public schools will be forbidden to teach the Declaration of Independence, with its basis in a providential Creator, not as an historical document or a manifestation of patriotism but as what it purported to be: a declaration of rational truths...
...An arms agreement, even if otherwise desirable, is no bargain flit is purchasable only at the price of our silence on the verymatters which we profess to be the ends of legitimate government, and which we contend set us apart from so many others in the course of human history...
...Carter has recently given the Russians is, I submit, neither pointless nor stupid...
...This Jefferson openly insisted on the crucial public importance of the belief in God and the morality--the rights and duties--derived therefrom...
...Carter is well-advised to clean up his act: In particular, he needs to keep tighter rein on the occasionally foolish impulses of some of his subordinates...
...Presidential inaugurations will no longer have ministers of various faiths participating, and presidents themselves will be warned against invoking God or His justice in their public statements...
...It is, in short, to ignore the moral aspect of American The Alternative: An American Spectator May 1977 29 foreign policy...
...Andrew Young, the talented but somewhat over-touted young Georgian selected by Mr...
...Quite simply, if our actions around the globe are m have meaning and purpose, recognition of that aspect is vital, particularly in an age when so many governments seem bent on proving George Orwell an accurate prophet...
...Cuhans were something of a "stabilizing force" in Angola...
...but if he is not so inclined we should be both willing and able to survive without such negotiations as well...
...Ford's reluctance to have Alexander Solzhenitsyn visit the White House is a prime example...
...I propose no program of senseless insults, nor do I recommend that we disregard considerations of the appropriateness of time and place in making our public pronouncements...
...Neither can force or influence a person to go to or remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion...
...contribute to a thaw in relations with his neighbor to the north--Fidel Castro has sent his legions into Zaire to spread yet wider the gospel of stabilization...
...A time may come when some of the most moving passages from presidential addresses of the past, including those of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, will be subjected by legalistic historians to the sternest censure, or even have their references to God excised as unfit for the gaze of neutral citizens...
...We are now prepared to examine Justice Black's interpretation of the establishment section of the First Amendment in Everson --an interpretation that to this day remains fundamentally unchallenged on the Court, and rarely challenged off it: The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a State nor the Federal Government can set up a church...
...Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer Dne religion over another...
...Here are the proposals of the man who did more for both religious freedom and public education in Virginia than anyone else (with the possible exception of Madison), who long before had written the Declaration of Independence, and who at one point, as the nation's chief executive, had spoken of a "wall of separation between church and State" erected by the First Amendment...
...Yielding to a Christ-like impulse to effect propitiation for America's collective transgressions in this area, Tyson presented in our name a heartfelt apology to the world for Washington's sins of omission in dealing with Santiago...
...To be sure, there is merit in attempting to reach reasonable accommodations with our adversaries, and giving pointless offense is rank stupidity...
...No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions...In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect "a wall of separation between church and State...
...To embark on a senseless crusade is one thing...
...The following year, in his plans for the state University of Virginia (which he serveda, its fast rector from 1817 to 1826), Jefferson explicitly excluded the teaching o f " divinity"--i.e., sectarian religion--but included required courses in natural theology and in the morality on which all sects agree...
...Padover, p. 1110) Jefferson's use of the word "expect" meant that he was, in effect, willing to compel students m exercise their religion freely--and we must presume that in making such provisions (reminiscent of school prayer, released time, and other recent cases) Jefferson was not ignorant of the non-establishment and free exercise provisions he himself had written into Virginia's constitution...
...Carter, however, has emerged relatively unscathed from these incidents-although had they occurred under his immediate predecessor, one suspects our pundits would have fallen all over themselves in their eagerness to shout "clumsy" and "bumbling...
...Here, then, is a Jefferson (and a Madison, too, since both worked jointly on most of these enterprises) his more fanatic latter-day followers never read or heed--one little fit to be the high priest of absolute separationism, or the chief architect of an impervious wall between church and state...
...In defense of the President, however, I also believe that the complaints being voiced with reference to his remarks about the oppressive regimes that currently dot the globe are so much bleat...
...The Sorensen, Young, and Tyson episodes are disquieting less as discrete instances of bad judgment than as reflections of a certain casualness in overall approach to the conduct of foreign affairs...
...Carter's Foreign Policy In its short time at the Nation's helm, the Carter Administration has already developed a certain reputation for shooting from the hip, particularly in the field of foreign affairs...
...Sorensen was left to his law practice, while Mr...
...Carter summarily recalled our young apologist for a short sermon on the limits of the latter's authority to offer saving atonement for the United States of America...
...To remedy this defect, Jefferson proposed that the various sects be permitted to establish their religious schools on the confines of the university and have access to university facilities, thus enabling students to attend the sect of their choice...
...but ours purports to be and is a Nation that cares deeply about the moral dimension of human affairs, especially on issues that involve individual freedom and responsibility...
...Carter was left to ponder the wisdom of too swirl acquiescence to the advice of his eager novitiates...
...Young, however, is a mere novice in these matters compared to his subordinate, the well-meaning but guilt-ridden Mr...
...In the course of seeking what President Nixon labelled an era of negotiation rather than confrontation, we have displayed at times an inordinate sensitivity to the possibility of offending those with whom we negotiate, particularly the Soviets...
...and as indicated earlier, I believe the Carter Administration would do well to pay more attention to the need for circumspection in the diplomatic arena...
...Yesterday it was nonsectarian prayers and Bible readings, tomorrow (despite IVa/z's makeshift ban on only "excessive entanglement") it will be tax privileges for religion, and, the day after, the mention of God in pledge, anthem, motto, and oath, and in "God save this honorable court...
...Padover, pp...
...Carter's supposed rapid-fire approach in another diplomatic context--namely, his outspoken criticism of violations of human rights by other governments, especially by the Soviets...
...But in the main, Mr...
...Enough disgruntled rumblings from narrow-minded members of the Senate, however, eventually proved fatal to the appointment...
...Noting the absence of courses in divinity, he admitted that man's relation to his Maker was of supreme importance to every human being, and that "The want of instruction in the various creeds of religious faith existing among our citizens presents, therefore, a Chasm in a general instruction of useful sciences...
...True enough, Mr...
...Carter to represent us at the United Nations, has also flirted at the edges of instant foreign policy...
...Moreover, according to some observers, such statements reveal a certain parochialism, and a lack of sophisticated appreciation for the different philosophical heritage of those nations in which the doctrines of Marx are currently paid homage...
...The President himself set the tone at the very beginning of his term, in somewhat hastily designating Theodore Sorensen as his chosen director of the CIA...
...Brady Tyson...
...Sorensen had much to recommend his appointment, including a Kennedy pedigree, a fashionable degree of sympathy for the current wisdom that sees American iritelligence as a force for evil in world affairs, and enthusiastic support among youthful Carter transition aides...
...Moral preachments about domestic policy in Communist lands are cited as a potentially dangerous throwback to the discarded rhetoric of the Cold War...
...Tyson, while representing our land at a ON conclave in Europe, suddenly found himself suffused with remorse at our supposed complicity in the erosion of civil liberties in Chile...
...Carter's statements on this score, we are warned, bespeak an ill.considered tendency toward instantaneous and possibly presumptuous sermonizing...
Vol. 10 • May 1977 • No. 8
