Hauerwas on the pitfalls of a liberal democracy

In his essay "The Church and Liberal Democracy: The Moral Limits of a Secular Polity" published in his book A Community of Character (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1981), Stanley Hauerwas sheds some light for us on the question we asked in an earlier post: Why are our neighbors viewed as strangers or even enemies?

On page 81:

. . . liberal polity is the attempt to show that societal cooperation is possible under the conditions of distrust. The very genius of our society is to forge a political and social existence that does not have to depend on trusting others in matters important for our survival. . . .

Of course the more it becomes unthinkable to trust a stranger, the more we must depend on more exaggerated forms of protection. But the human costs of distrust are perhaps the most destructive. For we are increasingly forced to view one another as strangers rather than as friends, and as a result we become all the more lonely. We have learned to call our loneliness "autonomy" and/or freedom, but the freer we become the more desperate our search for forms of "community" or "interpersonal relationship" that offer some contact with our fellows. Even the family is not immune from this development, since we now assume that children should have "rights" against the parents, as if the family itself were but a contractual society.

So, the light Hauerwas sheds on our inquiry is this: Our American society is based on the principle that our competing interests can be served in a land where we are free to pursue them, under a government whose primary task is to preserve the liberty of citizens who have little to do with each other.* But Hauerwas says in this essay that our society's refusal to sponsor anything but freedom and the protection of the rights of individuals** has resulted in a real incapacity for our society to encourage any virtue beyond self-interest (which, from a Christian standpoint, is a poor basis for moral decisions; if it may be called a virtue at all).

. . . our society offers no ready alternatives to liberalism. We are all liberals. In fact for us in America, liberalism, a position dedicated to ending our captivity to nature, custom, and coercion, ironically has become our fate. The great self-deception is in thinking that the tradition of liberalism gives us the means to recognize that it is indeed a tradition. Instead it continues to promise us new tomorrows of infinite creation. (Hauerwas 83)

If anyone doubts "We are all liberals": remember we are not speaking per se of leftist vs. so-called conservative politics. We are talking of "ending our captivity to nature, custom, and coercion." This concept pervades our society. For example, most children are told at a young age that they will have the liberty to choose their own vocation or occupation; we would look down upon a father who insisted his son take up his profession without question. It is the same way in our culture with marriage. Arranged marriage is so far off our moral map that it would be seen as perverse in our society to make someone marry a person they did not love. This liberalist individualism is also epitomized in the American Christian sphere by Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life: what on earth am I here for? (Note how the confusion of the subtitle presupposes a person who has not been given a purpose in life; more specifically, has not received any tradition to hand on to future generations.)

So unless an American is raised in a community that actually encourages moral virtue of some sort, it is very likely that self-interest will domineer the moral decision-making process for any given American. Rather than suggest that Christians attempt to advocate and enact some change to our government, Hauerwas urges that the church do its best at being itself, part of which is certainly teaching, encouraging and exemplifying virtue. We must be the people and family of God, the light of the world:

My call is for Christians to exhibit confidence in the lordship of Yahweh as the truth of our existence and in particular of our community. If we are so confident, we cannot help but serve our polity [i.e. the church], for such confidence creates a society capable of engendering persons of virtue and trust. A people so formed are particularly important for the continued existence of a society like ours, as they can provide the experience and skills necessary for me to recognize the difference of my neighbor not as a threat but as essential for my very life. (Hauerwas 86)

*Note also our economy is free market capitalism.
**This is also primarily what our justice system is based on; rather than really upon any more substantial moral story.
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What do you think?

In what ways does our liberal democracy stifle our society's ability to be/do something together as a whole?

How does it limit our communities and relationships, especially to our neighbors?

And what good news does the church have to proclaim in such an atmosphere?