A Chinese scholar named Wang Huning wrote a book in 1991 called America against America. Reading his book leads one to a similar conclusion reached by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835. “I sought everywhere in vain for the secret of their success, until I entered the church. It was there, as I listened to the soul-equalizing and soul-elevating principles of the Gospel of Christ, as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon the masses of the people, that I learned why America was great and free, and why France was a slave.” Some summarize his thought with the pithy phrase “America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good America will cease to be great”.
Wang did not search as diligently as de Tocqueville and so never experienced the church but he did experience the residual effects. As a result, being a member of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee, of which there are less than a dozen men, and the committee that is the leading influencer of CCP policy, he has led China to imitate the results of a vibrant, effective church. Since he did not, as de Tocqueville did, seek out the root cause of the “goodness” Chinese policy discourages and persecutes Christian churches.
One can argue against the notion that vibrant, effective churches are the heart of America’s goodness, however, one can argue, as de Tocquville did, in their favor. The decline of civility in American culture that has accompanied the West’s shift from regarding Christianity as primarily good to fundamentally bad lends credence to de Tocquville’s conclusion.