Eleanor roosevelt From the moral basis of democracy At a time when the whole world is in a turmoil and thousands of people are homeless and hungry, it behooves all of us to reconsider our political and religious beliefs in an effort to clarify in our minds the standards by which we live. What does democracy mean to us? What do we know of its history? Are there any religious beliefs which are essential to democractic way of life? Our democracy in this country had its roots in religious belief, and we had to acknowledge soon after its birth that differences in religious belief are inherent in the spirit of true democracy. Just because so many beliefs flourished side by side, we were forced to accept the fact that a belief was important, but what belief was important only to the individual concerned. Later it was accepted that an individual in this land of ours had the right to any religion, or to no religion. The principle, however , of the respondsibility of the individual for the well-being of his neighbors which is akin to: love thy neighbor as thyself in the new testament, seems always to have been a part of the development of the democratic ideal which has differentiated it from all other forms of govt. The motivating force of the theory of a democractic way of life is still a belief that as individuals we live co-operatively, and , to the best of our ability, serve the the community in which we live, and that our own success, to be real , must contribute to the success of others.
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 01:27:16 +0000
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