A First Attempt

Before I left, some of you asked me to try and find out why French politics is the way it is. Or, you could say, why are they socialists and why do they hate the way American's do things in foreign affairs? After a couple of conversations with my host family and some time to think about what they've said, here is my first attempt to explain some of the differences between these two countries and make some obervations in the process.

Comparing the world outlook of two different countries is like comparing apples and oragnes. You can't really compare fruit that has come from two separate trees. America and France are two countries with two drastically different histories, and today they enjoy two drastically different cultures. However, the scriptures allow us to compare them because countries are made up of people, and all humans share the same human nature. Liberals will claim that America is backward compared with the advances of Europe, and conservatives will say that Europe has abandoned liberty and freedom. But the Christian has to say that both of our counties have been shaped by idols of our day. America and France just happen to have two different idols. Well not two different idols, the same one, just two different expressions.

I make this statement because I realized I would not be able to understand the differences between the two countries if I stated my question like this, "what are the differences, and why doesn't France get it?" I think this is the response of most Americans. But we are foolish if we don't believe the Scriptures when it says of the nations, "He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them." (Psalm 2:4) America is included in this statement.

Both America and France were founded on the basic principles of the Enlightenment: reason and human automony. The Enlightenment held that human reason can solve any problem, and humans must be free from the bonds of authority, be they God, the Church, or even the restraints of gender differences. Both of our constitutions were written with these two basic assumptions. So, here is our idol. Our different expressions of the god of human reason and autonomy are the result of the differing responses that the French and the Americans have had to the problems they have faced over the years.

Essentially, these two countries are what they are because of how they have responded without the gospel and God's law. I'm only going to give one main example of this, and I hope to give more as I spend more time in France. But let's start with America.

As a nation, America was made up of a bunch of people who fled from oppression. As a result, we worship liberty: the virtue that has justified our fleeing from our problems. (That may be a little to harsh, but hear me out) Liberty has remained the chief virtue because as problems continued in our nation many of us just packed our bags and headed out west, or hid behind the fences of our cotton plantations. (Notice the irony of our joke that the French always surrender) Protected by water on two sides, and with no hostile neighbors (minus the the little excursions with the Indians and the Mexicans), we have forever enjoyed a country without invaders. Moreover, we have always been the product of our decisions. We didn't have to enter WWI and WWII, we didn't have the privilege of being the home the first Emperor of the Modern Era, and today we still don't have to sign the Kyoto agreement. Because of our geography, we have dealt with our problems through isolation and the doctrine of imminent domain. This explains why we feel that we can do whatever is best for America on the world front, and why the American Dream is still a legitimate illustration of our way of life.

Although the French boast of a similar political philosophy, they have experienced a much different history. Ruled by the Emperor of Europe shortly after the 1st Republic, humiliated by a first ever unified Germany in the 1870s, stuck in the trenches from 1914 - 1918, humiliated again by the Germans, and then facing devastating conflict in their African colonies during the 1960s, France has felt the sting of war in a way that America never has. It's people have not been able to just pack up and leave town when the Germans invaded. They have had to learn how to live together in crowded cities without the prospect of moving out west. The French cannot cling to liberty alone because much of what they are is what the rest of Europe has made them. We cannot say the same thing in America. Although the French are responsible for what they have become, they are more of a by-product of post WWII than a product of a collective "American Dream." When you have basically been at war, on your own turf, since Charlemagne, your priorities become a little different.

So, at this point we could say we are all the product of our environment, but this would not be an appropriate response for the Christian. Both of these countries faced God's providence and both responded with the wisdom of man and not the Gospel or His law. Americans have raised the banner of human autonomy a little higher than reason, while the French preferred a little more reason as a way to deal with their circumstances.

The welfare state that France enjoys is their attempt to ensure that Europe remains safe, healthy, free, and most importanly, at peace. But, because the system is man centered, France is not able to see the real needs of other countries around them, or even the real needs of its citizens. In many cases it neglects the obvious while giving the unecessary.

In America, we think that because we have enjoyed peace, that our system of government is to thank, and not God's providence. What would we have done if Hitler had turned to attack America before he turned on Russia? I doubt our depressed economy could have handled it in 1940. With pure naievity and pride we seek to parade our way of life all over the world, claiming that our privileges are universal rights. Our system of goverment works and we enjoy its benefits, but we must remember that it too has human reason and autonomy at the center. In too many ways we think that we are justified in letting our neighbor suffer the just consequences of his actions. But we often do this to the neglect of the order our society needs and we neglect the fact that God has made us a nation, just like he has made every other nation. We have duties to our neighbors that do not allow us to live the American Dream at someone else's expense. And, we must respect the heritage of other countries. We are foolish to think that everyone wants to be just like us.

What allows this comparison is that both America and France has responded to providence with the same idol of reason and human autonomy. The difference in God's providence has produced the differing outcomes of the two countries, but both countries have had the same response to providence: human reason and autonomy above the gospel and God's law. As we examine the differences, we will only understand them properly if we see them as a product of sin on a national scale. Otherwise, we are caught in the enless debate of who has it right and who doesn't.

I have seen that explaining away the differences is no solution, and neither is trying to pick the country with the best form of government. All the nations of the world are what they are because of what the depraved human nature of their leaders has made them in response and rebellion to God's wisdom in providence. The job of the Christian is to recognize the faults of his own country and of those around him in light of the gospel and God's law, and then seek to avoid them himself and affect change if the Lord gives opportunity.

I've attempted to explain some of the differences between France and the US. But the goal isn't mutual understanding, the goal is to see ourselves for who we are, and to see our nation for what it is in light of God's word.