Moral foundations of society: a contrast between West & East.

• Author: Thatcher, Margaret

HISTORY has taught us that freedom can not survive for long unless it is based on moral foundations. The founding of America bears ample witness to this fact. The U.S. has become the most powerful nation in history, yet uses its power not for territorial expansion, but to perpetuate freedom and justice throughout the world.

For more than two centuries, Americans have held fast to their belief in freedom for all men--a credo that springs from their spiritual heritage. John Adams, second president of the U.S., wrote in 1789, "Our Constitution was designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." That was an astonishing thing to say, but it was true.

What kind of people built America and thus prompted Adams to make such a statement? Too many, especially the young, have a hard time answering that question. They know little of their own past. (This is also true in Great Britain.) America's is a very distinguished history, nonetheless, and has important lessons to teach regarding the necessity of moral foundations.

John Winthrop, who led the Great Migration to America in the early 17th century and helped found the Massachusetts Bay Colony, declared, "We shall be as a City upon a Hill." On the voyage to the New World, he told the members of his company that they must rise to their responsibilities and learn to live as God intended men should live: in charity, love, and cooperation with one another.

Most of the early colonists were infused with the same spirit, and tried to live in accord with a Biblical ethic. They felt they weren't able to do so in Great Britain or elsewhere in Europe. It didn't matter that some were Protestant and some were Catholic. What mattered was that they did not feel they had the liberty to worship freely and, therefore, live freely, at home. With enormous courage, the first American colonists set out on a perilous journey to an unknown land, not in order to amass fortunes, but to fulfill their faith.

Christianity is based on the belief in a single God as evolved from Judaism. Most important of all, the faith of America's founders affirmed the sanctity of each individual. Every human life--man or woman, child or adult, commoner or aristocrat, rich or poor--was equal in the eyes of the Lord. It also affirmed the responsibility of each individual.

This was not a faith that allowed people to do whatever they wished, regardless of the consequences. The Ten Commandments, Moses' injunction ("Look after your neighbor as yourself"), the Sermon on the Mount, and the Golden Rule made Americans feel precious--and also accountable for the way in which they used their God-given talents. Thus, they shared a deep sense of obligation to one another. As the years passed, they not only formed strong communities, but devised laws that would protect individual freedom. These eventually would be enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Those in the West also must recognize their debt to other cultures. In the pre-Christian era, for example, the ancient...