Juliana Bleiberg, Week 11, Substantive

Hurd’s article on the debate of the Turkish entry into the European Union opened with calling the EU an exclusive “ Christian Europe.” Despite all being under the grand umbrella of Christianity, I cannot begin to imagine any Greek Orthodox being more compatible with a Catholic Spaniard than with a Muslim from Turkey. But then again, there are centuries of history to support maintaining Europe as some sort of ‘Christian Dom.’ By that, I mean, that religion still plays a vital role in many societies and governments (directly or indirectly), and it would be naive to think that it would not effect something like a country (Turkey) joining the EU. Even the United States, with its separation of church (mind you no one says religion, or includes a mosque or temple) and state is still heavily influenced by religion. When you have a majority of people, it doesn’t matter how clearly you define the separation legally, the majority will still effect the politics and government. Modernization can happen in various ways, including technologically speaking, but eliminating religion from politics and government is not modernizing, nor is it remotely realistic. Society is built on culture, which has always included religion, so there is no reason why a modern society would neglect its fundamental roots and what it was built on, and sway away from religion. The idea that a society is not modern just because they are religiously based is ridiculous. Developing a successful society, and integrating cultures (or Turkey into the EU) would all occur more successfully if religion was an assumed difference and one that people were willing to work with and not attempt to negate altogether, because centuries of tradition, are going nowhere.