“E pluribus unum.” No concept has been more uniquely American than the national motto first suggested in 1776 by our founding fathers. It is rooted deeply in a Christian view of our culture that has been shoved aside in favor of the European tribalism favored by tyrants.
There is a reason 20th Century dictators ranging from Adolf Hitler to Joseph Stalin ralled against “the others” in their societies. By creating division, it is easier to exercise dictatorial control.
In our American culture of the 21st Century, the same dictatorial impulses have done the same thing but with a twist. With a faux ferver the belies history and reality, we’ve become fixated on hyphens and modifyers in a way that would have baffled our founding fathers.
Consider men like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Rush. They could not have been more different in their views of the world and even what motivated their participation in the cause of independence.
In writing to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul stressed the need for unity in the faith. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Just as the early church was built by a wild diverse people who came together under Christ, so too was our nation built by people whose difference were unified in political liberty and self-governance.
Such notions are antithetical to the whims of the ruling elite. They need us divided against ourselves.
This is why we are told to celebrate that which makes us different. We must make ourselves the “other,” who is opposed, hated, or feared… And we must view all the others likewise.
Our culture encourages to dress this up in that most delicious of self-centered sins. The algorithms of modern life has us find what most differentiates us from our neighbors, and wave it as a point of “pride.”
Not coincidentally, Holy Scripture has a lot to say about results of pride… and none of it is good. “Pride goes before destruction,” begins the line from Proverbs 16. It is so much easier, the tyrannts know, to control a people who have destroyed themselves.
Strength is found not in diversity. Strength is found in unity.
If we are to reclaim our republic, we must rejuvenate a culture that celebrates our founding principles. From many, we can be one people when we are united in liberty. E pluribus unum.
