What’s The Real Meaning of ‘E Pluribus Unum?’
Sometimes it’s easier to blame a vague “ism,” rather than our own actions — our own lack of caring — for the ills we experience in society.
Attorney General William Barr seemed to do just that in a recent speech at Notre Dame University. He blamed a host of social problems, from alienation and violence to depression and drug use, on what he labeled a lack of religious grounding and rampant “militaristic” secularism.
The problem is not so much in our stars, but in ourselves. We have an abundance of religion in America. What we are experiencing is an absence of compassion.
I did agree with one part of Mr. Barr’s speech. “The first thing we have to do is ensure that we are putting our principles into practice in our own personal lives,” he told Notre Dame’s law school students. “Only by transforming ourselves can we transform the world beyond.”
Secularism holds that religion has no place in the public sector. I’m not advocating for more secularism. Judeo-Christian values are an essential part of my own life. But in his speech, Mr. Barr fails to recognize that other traditions, from to Islam to Hinduism, Buddhism to the Baha’i faith, also stress compassion, ethics, and moral values.
I know people who adhere to strong moral and ethical codes who don’t attend any particular church. And I know those who do.
The attorney general also glosses over the fact many organized religions today sorely need purification from their own internal sins — whether it be Islamic extremism or the Catholic Church’s cover up of sexual abuse. That is what drives away so many.
The “Nuns and Nones” movement offers an interesting counterpoint. Most of the young adults in the group ascribe to no particular religious tradition. Yet they meet on a regular basis with Catholic religious sisters. Why? Because they want to nurture an inner life. They recognize there is something ineffable beyond the mind the body. There is spirit, soul.
I reflected this past week on another speech, one given by a TV character. I don’t watch much television, but my husband recently brought home Season 5 of “Madam Secretary” on DVD. In the first episode, a group launches a mortar attack against the White House. The attackers aren’t Islamic extremists or foreign terrorists, as first thought. They are white American nationalists.
Elizabeth McCord, the fictional U.S. Secretary of State, is later asked to offer some remarks. She reminds us that diversity isn’t a threat to our culture. The greatest threat, she says, is hate.
Hers words are well worth quoting and pondering in light of all that continues to transpire in our country:
“We must never lose sight of our common humanity, our common values and our common decency. I was reminded recently of our nation’s founding motto: e pluribus unum. Out of many, one. Thirteen disparate colonies became one country. One people …
“Governments can’t legislate tolerance or eradicate hate. That’s why each one of us has to find the beauty in our differences instead of the fear. Listen instead of reacting. Reach out instead of recoiling. It’s up to us. All of us.”
“Secretary” McCord’s speech beckons to our better selves. Attorney General Barr also got one thing quite right: “Only by transforming ourselves can we transform the world beyond.”
