Bacevich, Prothero debate America?s ?Puritan ideology?

To this day, Puritan ideology continues to permeate the politics of the United States, speakers said Wednesday.

International Relations professor Andrew Bacevich and Religion professor Stephen Prothero kicked off Alumni Weekend with a the discussion titled “Are Americans God’s Chosen People?” at Metcalf Hall.

About 150 people attended the discussion, which was hosted by Boston University’s Department of Public Relations and moderated by Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore.

Bacevich and Prothero discussed topics ranging from the relationship between religion and American politics to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The two professors agreed Americans have always believed they have a covenant with God, a conviction that has impacted the nation from Puritan colonial times to the present day.

Prothero said the belief that Americans are God’s chosen people has motivated American foreign policy.

“During the Puritan era, John Winthrop had the idea of America as the “City on a Hill.’ Ronald Reagan added to this to make it a “Shining City on a Hill’,” he said.

Bacevich said American presidents notoriously have drawn on religion and God to formulate policy, most notably George W. Bush and Woodrow Wilson.

“Pre-9/11, Bush was a mushy realist,” he said. “Post-9/11, he believed in the American mission to export freedom and democracy to the world. The sense of singularity is hard-wired into who we are as a people. With American exceptionalism, the moral burden has vanished and we now see it as conferring prerogatives rather than responsibility.”

While both Bacevich and Prothero pleaded for humility and thought in American foreign policy, they also recognized that inaction is not a solution.

However, Prothero insisted that the U.S. not employ violence.

“Democracy should not be spread at the point of a gun,” he said.

Following the discussion, audience members were allowed to ask questions of the two professors.

One audience member asked whether Americans should let fear of either action or inaction rule.

Bacevich responded, “Americans should be modest, expect the unexpected, know that evil is out there, but still, we should not be afraid to act.”

Another audience member asked the professors’ their take on the Florida pastor who threatened to burn the Quran earlier this year.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Prothero said.

However, Prothero said he was shocked by the opposition to the Islamic community center in New York City by Ground Zero.

“I was surprised by the capacity of Americans to express at such a visceral level their hatred toward Muslims,” he said. “I think there are just limits to which American intolerance will go and we found a limit there.”

Bacevich said he remembered going to the gym which was playing CNN and they were “flogging” the Florida pastor story “in ways that seemed completely mindless.”

The story would have faded much more quickly had it not gotten that media attention, he said.

“I did think it was trumped up by the media,” Bacevich said.

College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Monsura Sirajee said she thought the discussion was highly relevant.

“I was looking through a recent update to a constitutional casebook and they mentioned the fact that Americans believe in this covenant,” she said. “This conversation has wide implications, not just within the academic world, but also within law and politics as well.”

After the discussion, the professors signed copies of their latest books, Bacevich’s “Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War” and Prothero’s “God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World — and Why Their Differences Matter.”