By Rev. Steve Wilkins
Culture implies far more than common food, dress, or accent. The root of our English word "culture" is the Latin "cultus," which to the Romans signified worship of the divine. This reminds us of the foundation of culture which is so often forgotten in our day. As Russell Kirk has noted, "[C]ulture arises from the cult; that is, people are joined together in worship, and out of their religious association grows the organized human community."1
Culture implies a common way of life, common standards, a common worldview, if you will. But this commonality is founded ultimately not upon economic status, race, or nationality, but, as the word indicates, a common faith. Christopher Dawson puts it this way, "It is clear that a common way of life involves a common view of life, common standards of behavior, and common standards of value, and consequently a culture is a spiritual community which owes its unity to common beliefs and common ways of thought far more than to any unanimity of physical type.... Therefore from the beginning the social way of life which is culture has been deliberately ordered and directed in accordance with the higher laws of life which are religion."2
Even though a bill to defend Louisiana’s Confederate heritage had passed the State’s Legislature in mid-May by a margin of over 2-to-1, it has not been advanced by the Senate, and the governor has been heard whining about it. The Associated Press has reported that “Gov. John Bel Edwards derided a bill that could protect Confederate monuments, calling the proposal impractical and unnecessarily divisive on Tuesday, a day after black lawmakers stormed off the Louisiana House floor in protest over a Republican's plan.”
