“If you fix your eyes not on one state merely, but look around the world, or at least direct your view to regions widely separated from each other, you will perceive that Divine Providence has not, without good cause, arranged that different countries should be governed by different forms of polity. For as only elements of unequal temperature adhere together, so in different regions a similar inequality in the form of government is best.”
John Calvin
Institutes
Calvin here is clearly against any notion of multiculturalism. Different countries, populated by different peoples, are governed by different forms of polity that best reflect and so serve different peoples. From this we learn the advisability of properly segregating those social realities that should be properly segregated. For example, it would be foolhardy to try to integrate the Shona people group as living among the Japanese. They are different peoples and should be ruled by different traditions, customs, and governance. Their differences don’t allow for social integration as one people. This seems obvious.
What Calvin wrote in the 16th century Thomas Jefferson echoed in his lifetime when writing about the differences between blacks and whites;
“Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.”
What Calvin and Jefferson observed was not merely a matter of opinion. Calvin would have said that this was clear from God’s Word as seen in how the OT gives very precise delineations keeping the stranger and the alien distinct from Israel. Jefferson would have said this was obvious as seen in Nature and Nature’s God. Both would have been correct though today’s Natural Law enthusiasts would disagree with Jefferson’s correct interpretation of Natural Law.
Calvin and Jefferson were not merely rendering up subjective opinions merely reflective of their times. Calvin and Jefferson (and countless other men) were reflecting objective truth. It’s the same truth that is found in Scripture wherein it is taught
“You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.” Deut. 22:10
One would think that the obvious failure of our long pursued egalitarianism would be obvious on this matter. One would think that the failures of multiculturalism are glaring. Instead, we continue to hear stupid slogans that have repeatedly been demonstrated as abundantly not even close to being true like “diversity is our strength,” “Strength lies in differences, not in similarities,” “Diversity is a mix and inclusion is making the mix work,” “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive,” and “A democracy thrives on diversity. Tyranny oppresses it.” All of this has been to prop up an egalitarianism that can not stand, never has stood, and never will stand. The continued decline of the US and Europe in their attempt to embrace diversity and multiculturalism has proven the wisdom of Calvin and Jefferson and countless others. A society… a culture … is only strong where there is worldview, ideological, theological, philosophical, religious, and cultural harmony of interest as combined with a shared racial / ethnic history and tradition.
Hat-tip — Adam Plewes
