A Story Which You Will Remember

Austin Ruse recounts this. It is a story which has a punchline, for sure.

I once heard the only possible hope for the future of Europe and it came from the mouth of an orthodox Jew. He was responding to the sophisticated and erudite proposal of the elegant Italian statesman Marcello Pera. Pera, who was then president of the Italian Senate and published a book last year with Pope Benedict, spoke at a conference in Vienna sponsored by Cristophe Cardinal Schoenborn.

A non-believer, Pera proposed what Europe needs is a civic religion that is not overtly Christian but that has Christian attributes with which everyone can agree: civility, tolerance, compassion, dialogue. You will recognize these as the attributes par excellence of the modern secularist. Professor Joseph Weiler was asked to respond.

Weiler is an orthodox Jew. He is the Joseph Straus Professor of Law and European Union Jean Monnet Chair at New York University. He used to be the Manly Hudson Professor of Law and European Union Jean Monnet Chair at Harvard University. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Weiler is not a Bible thumper of either Old or New Testament. Yet the orthodox Jew Weiler rose that day in Vienna and said: "What Europe needs are more Europeans proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ."

That won't escape your mind for quite some time, folks.