It all comes down to the people, doesn't it? Words, sacred or secular, inspire practice but it is the people who must practice. Most Christians today haven't even read the whole Bible. They are practicing Christians nonetheless. No one in America but some lawyers and scholars have read the whole of the United States Constitution. It is still their governing document. A silk purse can me sewn out of a sow's ear. And the reverse (whatever that might be):
The [Weimar] constitution...was, on paper, the most liberal and democratic document of its kind the twentieth century had seen, mechanically well-nigh perfect, full of ingenious and admirable devices which seemed to guarantee the working of an almost flawless democracy.
The wording...was sweet and eloquent to the ear of any democratically minded man. The people were declared sovereign: "Political power emanates from the people." Men and women were given the vote at the age of twenty. "All Germans are equal before the law...Personal liberty is inviolable...All Germans have the right to form associations or societies...All inhabitants of the Reich enjoy complete liberty of belief and conscience..." No man in the world would be more free than a German, no government more democratic and liberal than his. On paper, at least.
...
"In the heart of the people," cried Oswald Spengler, who had skyrocketed to fame with his book The Decline of the West, "the Weimar Constitution is already doomed."
-Shirer, The Rise and Fall, pp. 56-7, 61.
The [Weimar] constitution...was, on paper, the most liberal and democratic document of its kind the twentieth century had seen, mechanically well-nigh perfect, full of ingenious and admirable devices which seemed to guarantee the working of an almost flawless democracy.
The wording...was sweet and eloquent to the ear of any democratically minded man. The people were declared sovereign: "Political power emanates from the people." Men and women were given the vote at the age of twenty. "All Germans are equal before the law...Personal liberty is inviolable...All Germans have the right to form associations or societies...All inhabitants of the Reich enjoy complete liberty of belief and conscience..." No man in the world would be more free than a German, no government more democratic and liberal than his. On paper, at least.
...
"In the heart of the people," cried Oswald Spengler, who had skyrocketed to fame with his book The Decline of the West, "the Weimar Constitution is already doomed."
-Shirer, The Rise and Fall, pp. 56-7, 61.
