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I bring you greetings from the 52nd-freest nation on earth.
我从地球上自由程度排名第52的国家带问候来给各位。
As an American, it irritates me that my nation keeps sinking in the annual rankings published by Freedom House.
身为美国人，我很受不了我的国家在自由之家所公布的年度排行榜中不断下滑。
I'm the son of immigrants. My parents were born in China during war and revolution,
我是移民者的孩子。我的父母生在中国大陆，那是战乱和革命的时代，
went to Taiwan and then came to the United States, which means all my life,
他们先到中国台湾，接着又前往美国，意思就是，我一生中，
I've been acutely aware just how fragile an inheritance freedom truly is.
我其实一直都很清楚，继承来的自由有多么脆弱。
That's why I spend my time teaching, preaching and practicing democracy.
那就是为什么，我把时间花在教导、讲授、实践民主。
I have no illusions. All around the world now, people are doubting whether democracy can deliver.
我没有幻想。现在，世界各地，大家都在怀疑，民主是否能实现。
Autocrats and demagogues seem emboldened, even cocky. The free world feels leaderless.
独裁者和煽动者似乎很大胆，甚至狂妄自大。感觉像是没有人在领导自由世界。
And yet, I remain hopeful. I don't mean optimistic.
但我仍然抱有希望。我不是指乐观。
Optimism is for spectators. Hope implies agency. It says I have a hand in the outcome.
旁观者才会乐观。希望意味着能动性。意思是，我对于结果有部分的责任。
Democratic hope requires faith not in a strongman or a charismatic savior but in each other, and it forces us to ask:
民主的希望需要信念，不是相信铁腕人物或有魅力的救星，而是相信彼此，它强迫我们去问这个问题：
How can we become worthy of such faith?
我们要怎么做，才能值得这种信念？忽的集成体。你的行为造成了社会现在的样子。
I believe we are at a moment of moral awakening, the kind that comes when old certainties collapse.
我相信，我们正处于道德觉醒的时刻，在过去的肯定性崩坏时会出现的那种觉醒。
At the heart of that awakening is what I call "civic religion."
觉醒的核心则是我所谓的“公民宗教”。
And today, I want to talk about what civic religion is, how we practice it, and why it matters now more than ever.
今天，我想要谈谈公民宗教是什么，我们要如何实践它，以及为什么它在此时特别重要。
Let me start with the what.
让我从“它是什么”谈起。
I define civic religion as a system of shared beliefs and collective practices
我把公民宗教定义为一种体制，共同信念及集体实践的体制，
by which the members of a self-governing community choose to live like citizens.
通过这种体制，自治社区的成员选择像公民一样地过生活。
Now, when I say "citizen" here, I'm not referring to papers or passports.
我这里说的“公民”指的并不是文件或护照。
I'm talking about a deeper, broader, ethical conception of being a contributor to community, a member of the body.
我在谈的是更深、更广的伦理观念：成为对社区有贡献的人，成为团体的成员。
To speak of civic religion as religion is not poetic license.
把公民宗教当成宗教来讲，并不是诗意的特许。
That's because democracy is one of the most faith-fueled human activities there is.
那是因为，民主是最需要信念支撑的人类活动之一。
Democracy works only when enough of us believe democracy works. It is at once a gamble and a miracle.
只有当有足够的人相信民主行得通时，民主才行得通。它既是赌博又是奇迹。
Its legitimacy comes not from the outer frame of constitutional rules, but from the inner workings of civic spirit.
它的正当性不是来自宪法规定的外框架，而是来自公民精神的内在运作。
Civic religion, like any religion, contains a sacred creed, sacred deeds and sacred rituals.
公民宗教和任何宗教一样，都有神圣的教义、神圣的作为以及神圣的仪式。
My creed includes words like "equal protection of the laws" and "we the people."
我的教义包含了这些文字：“对法律的平等保护”及“我们人民”。
My roll call of hallowed deeds includes abolition, women's suffrage, the civil rights movement,
我可以点出的神圣作为包括：废除黑奴制度、女性投票、民权运动，
the Allied landing at Normandy, the fall of the Berlin Wall.
同盟国部队在诺曼底登陆，拆除柏林围墙。
And I have a new civic ritual that I'll tell you about in a moment.
等一下我会告诉各位一种新的公民仪式。
Wherever on earth you're from, you can find or make your own set of creed, deed and ritual.
不论你来自世界的何处，你都可以找到或创造一组你自己的教义、作为以及仪式。
The practice of civic religion is not about worship of the state or obedience to a ruling party.
公民宗教的实践，重点不在于崇拜国家或是顺从主政的党派。
It is about commitment to one another and our common ideals.
重点在于对彼此的承诺以及我们共同的理想。
And the sacredness of civic religion is not about divinity or the supernatural.
而公民宗教的神圣，重点并不是神性或超自然的东西。
It is about a group of unlike people speaking into being our alikeness, our groupness.
重点是让一群不同的人，透过谈话表达而找到我们的相似处，成为群体。
Perhaps now you're getting a little worried that I'm trying to sell you on a cult.
现在各位可能有点担心我是在试图推销某种宗教。
Relax, I'm not. I don't need to sell you.
放心，我怕并不是。我不需要推销给你们。
As a human, you are always in the market for a cult, for some variety of religious experience.
身为人类，你们一直都在宗教的市场中，寻求一些宗教体验的多样性。
We are wired to seek cosmological explanations, to sacralize beliefs that unite us in transcendent purpose.
我们天生就会寻找宇宙的解释，让那些用超然目的将我们团结起来的信念能够被神圣化。
Humans make religion because humans make groups.
人类会创造宗教，是因为人类会创造团体。
The only choice we have is whether to activate that groupness for good.
我们唯一的选择，就是是否要将这种群体性用在好的用途上。
If you are a devout person, you know this.
如果你是虔诚的人，你就知道这一点。
If you are not, if you no longer go to prayer services or never did, then perhaps you'll say that yoga is your religion,
如果你不是，如果你已经不再去祷告仪式或从来没有去过，那有可能你会说瑜伽是你的宗教，
or Premier League football, or knitting, or coding or TED Talks.
或者英格兰足球超级联赛，或者编织，或者写程序，或者TED演讲。
But whether you believe in a God or in the absence of gods, civic religion does not require you to renounce your beliefs.
但不论你相信神或是不相信有神，公民宗教并不会要求你要声明放弃你的信念。
It requires you only to show up as a citizen.
它只要求你要以公民的身分出席。
And that brings me to my second topic: how we can practice civic religion productively.
这就带到了我的第二个主题：我们要如何用很有生产力的方式实践公民宗教？
Let me tell you now about that new civic ritual. It's called "Civic Saturday," and it follows the arc of a faith gathering.
现在，让我告诉各位刚才提到的新公民仪式。它叫做“公民星期六”，它遵循着信念聚会的轨迹。
We sing together, we turn to the strangers next to us to discuss a common question, we hear poetry and scripture,
我们一起唱歌，我们转向身边的陌生人，讨论共同的问题，我们会听诗歌和经文，
there's a sermon that ties those texts to the ethical choices and controversies of our time,
会有布道，将那些文字和我们这个时代的伦理选择以及争论连结起来，
but the song and scripture and the sermon are not from church or synagogue or mosque.
但那些歌曲、经文和布道并不是来自礼拜堂、犹太教堂，或清真寺。
They are civic, drawn from our shared civic ideals and a shared history of claiming and contesting those ideals.
它们是公民的，源自我们共同的公民理想，以及索求、争取那些理想的共同历史。
Afterwards, we form up in circles to organize rallies, register voters, join new clubs, make new friends.
之后，我们会围成圆圈，来组织集会、登记投票者、加入新社团、交新朋友。
My colleagues and I started organizing Civic Saturdays in Seattle in 2016.
2016年，我和我同事在西雅图开始组织“公民星期六”。
Since then, they have spread across the continent. Sometimes hundreds attend, sometimes dozens.
从此之后，公民星期六就散播整个大陆。有时，会有数百人出席，有时则是几十人。
They happen in libraries and community centers and coworking spaces, under festive tents and inside great halls.
举办的地点包括图书馆、社区中心、共同工作的空间，在节庆的帐篷下，以及大会堂内。
There's nothing high-tech about this social technology. It speaks to a basic human yearning for face-to-face fellowship.
这项社群技术并不用什么高科技。它强调的是人类基本的渴望，渴望面对面的交情。
It draws young and old, left and right, poor and rich, churched and unchurched, of all races.
它能吸引年轻人和老年人，左派和右派，贫穷人和有钱人，上教堂和不上教堂的人，所有的种族。
When you come to a Civic Saturday and are invited to discuss a question like "Who are you responsible for?"
当你来到公民星期六，你会被邀请讨论问题，比如“你为谁负责？”
or "What are you willing to risk or to give up for your community?"
或“你愿意为你的社区冒什么样的风险或放弃什么？”
When that happens, something moves. You are moved. You start telling your story. We start actually seeing one another.
这个状况发生时，会有改变产生。你会被感动。你会开始诉说你的故事。我们会真正开始看见彼此。
You realize that homelessness, gun violence, gentrification, terrible traffic, mistrust of newcomers, fake news
你会了解到，无家可归、枪枝暴力、中产阶级化、糟糕的交通、不相信新来者、假新闻，
these things aren't someone else's problem, they are the aggregation of your own habits and omissions. Society becomes how you behave.
这些都不是别人的问题，它们是你自己的习惯和疏忽的集成体。你的行为造成了社会现在的样子。
We are never asked to reflect on the content of our citizenship.
从来没有人要我们去反思我们公民身分的内容是什么。
Most of us are never invited to do more or to be more, and most of us have no idea how much we crave that invitation.
我们大部分的人从来没有被邀请去做更多、成为更多，并且大部分人并不知道我们有多么渴望得到那样的邀请。
We've since created a civic seminary to start training people from all over to lead Civic Saturday gatherings on their own, in their own towns.
因此，我们创立了一间公民学院，开始训练来自各地的人，让他们在自己的镇上，靠自己领导公民星期六的聚会。
In the community of Athens, Tennessee, a feisty leader named Whitney Kimball Coe
在田纳西州雅典市的社区中，有位活跃的领导人叫做惠妮·金柏·柯，
leads hers in an art and framing shop with a youth choir and lots of little flags.
在一间艺术及表框商店中领导她的聚会，还有一个青年合唱团以及许多小旗帜。
A young activist named Berto Aguayo led his Civic Saturday on a street corner in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago.
一位年轻的激进分子柏托·厄瓜尤在芝加哥“后院”社区中的一个街角领导他的公民星期六。
Berto was once involved with gangs. Now, he's keeping the peace and organizing political campaigns.
柏托过去曾经和帮派有关系。现在他在维护和平及组织政治活动。
In Honolulu, Rafael Bergstrom, a former pro baseball player turned photographer and conservationist,
檀香山的拉斐尔·柏斯卓姆过去曾是职业棒球选手，后来成了摄影师与天然资源保护论者，
leads his under the banner "Civics IS Sexy." It is.
他负责领导拥护公民的“公民学很性感”。是很性感没错。
Sometimes I'm asked, even by our seminarians: "Isn't it dangerous to use religious language?
有时我会被问，甚至被学院学生问：“用宗教语言不会很危险吗？”
Won't that just make our politics even more dogmatic and self-righteous?"
这样不会让我们的政治显得更武断且自以为是吗？”
But this view assumes that all religion is fanatical fundamentalism. It is not.
但这个观点已经假设了所有的宗教都是狂热的基要主义。并不是这样的。
Religion is also moral discernment, an embrace of doubt, a commitment to detach from self and serve others, a challenge to repair the world.
宗教也是道德的洞察、对怀疑的拥抱、承诺分离自我，去服务他人、修复世界的挑战。
In this sense, politics could stand to be a little more like religion, not less.
就这种意义上来说，政治是更像宗教一点，而非更不像。
Thus, my final topic today: why civic religion matters now.
因此，今天我最后的主题是：为什么现在公民宗教很重要？
I want to offer two reasons. One is to counter the culture of hyperindividualism.
我想要提出两个理由。第一，是要对抗超级个人主义的文化。
Every message we get from every screen and surface of the modern marketplace is that each of us is on our own,
我们从每个屏幕及现代商业界的表面所取得的每个信息都指出我们每个人都靠自己，
a free agent, free to manage our own brands, free to live under bridges, free to have side hustles, free to die alone without insurance.
都是自由人，可以自由地管理我们自己的品牌，自由地住在桥底下，自由地打工，自由地在没有保险的情况下孤独死亡。
Market liberalism tells us we are masters beholden to none,
市场自由主义告诉我们，我们是主人，不对谁有任何义务，
but then it enslaves us in the awful isolation of consumerism and status anxiety. Yeah!
但接着，它奴役了我们，让我们处在消费主义和地位焦虑的严重孤立中。是啊！
Millions of us are on to the con now. We are realizing now that a free-for-all is not the same as freedom for all.
我们数百万人现在杠上了这个骗局。现在，我们了解到人人自由放任并不等同大家都有自由。
What truly makes us free is being bound to others in mutual aid and obligation,
真正让我们自由的，是受到他人的束缚，有互相的支助和义务，
having to work things out the best we can in our neighborhoods and towns,
必须要在我们的邻里和乡镇中尽我们所能解决问题，
as if our fates were entwined -- because they are -- as if we could not secede from one another, because, in the end, we cannot.
彷佛我们的命运交织在一起--因为确实如此--彷佛我们不能够脱离彼此，因为，最终，我们的确不能。
Binding ourselves this way actually liberates us.
用这种方式束缚我们，其实是解放了我们。
It reveals that we are equal in dignity. It reminds us that rights come with responsibilities.
它呈现出的是我们在尊严上的平等。它提醒我们权利都有附带的责任。
It reminds us, in fact, that rights properly understood are responsibilities.
它提醒我们，事实上，妥善了解的权利，就是责任。
The second reason why civic religion matters now is that it offers the healthiest possible story of us and them.
现在公民宗教很重要的第二个理由：它提供的关于我们和他们的故事，是最健康的。
We talk about identity politics today as if it were something new, but it's not.
现今，我们会谈身分认同政治，讲得好像它是新东西一样，但并不是。
All politics is identity politics, a never-ending struggle to define who truly belongs.
所有的政治都是身分认同政治，永无止境的挣扎，要定义出谁才是一分子。
Instead of noxious myths of blood and soil that mark some as forever outsiders,
不用血统和出生地将一个人永远标记为外来者的不良迷思，
civic religion offers everyone a path to belonging based only a universal creed of contribution, participation, inclusion.
公民宗教提供给每个人的，是一条归属的道路，考虑的只有通用的信条：贡献、参与、包容。
In civic religion, the "us" is those who wish to serve, volunteer, vote, listen, learn, empathize, argue better, circulate power rather than hoard it.
在公民宗教中，“我们”指的是想要服务大家的人，想要自愿参与、投票、倾听、学习、强调、做更好的立论、让权力循环，而不是聚藏它。
The "them" is those who don't. It is possible to judge the them harshly,
“他们”指的是不做这些事的人。的确是可以很严厉地评断他们，
but it isn't necessary, for at any time, one of them can become one of us, simply by choosing to live like a citizen.
但没必要这么做，因为任何时候，他们之中的人都有可能变成我们的一员，只要他们选择过着像公民的生活即可。
So let's welcome them in. Whitney and Berto and Rafael are gifted welcomers.
所以，让我们欢迎他们进来。惠妮、柏托和拉斐尔都是有才华的欢迎者。
Each has a distinctive, locally rooted way to make faith in democracy relatable to others.
他们都有深根在当地的独特方法，让对民主的信念变成是大家都可以连结的。
Their slang might be Appalachian or South Side or Hawaiian.
他们可能说着阿巴拉契亚山脉的、南边的或夏威夷的俚语。
Their message is the same: civic love, civic spirit, civic responsibility.
但他们的信息是相同的：公民的爱、公民的精神、公民的责任。
Now you might think that all this civic religion stuff is just for overzealous second-generation Americans like me.
现在，各位可能在想，这些公民宗教的一切适用对象只是像我这种过度热心的第二代美国人。
But actually, it is for anyone, anywhere
但事实上，对象是任何地方的任何人，
who wants to kindle the bonds of trust, affection and joint action needed to govern ourselves in freedom.
只要想要点燃信任的联结、感情以及联合行动，都是在自由中管理我们自己必备的。
Now maybe Civic Saturdays aren't for you. That's OK. Find your own ways to foster civic habits of the heart.
也许公民星期六并不适合你。那也没关系。找到你自己的方法，去培养出真心的公民习惯。
Many forms of beloved civic community are thriving now, in this age of awakening.
现在，在这个觉醒的时代，被深爱的公民社区以许多形式在茁壮。
Groups like Community Organizing Japan, which uses creative performative rituals of storytelling to promote equality for women.
像是“日本社区组织”这样的团体采用有创意、表演式的说故事仪式来推动女性平权。
In Iceland, civil confirmations, where young people are led by an elder to learn the history and civic traditions of their society,
在冰岛有“公民坚振礼”仪式，一名长者会引领年轻人去学习他们社会的历史和公民传统，
culminating in a rite-of-passage ceremony akin to church confirmation.
在类似教堂坚振礼的人生大事及其庆祝仪式中达到最高点。
Ben Franklin Circles in the United States, where friends meet monthly
在美国的班富兰克林圈，朋友每个月会聚会，
to discuss and reflect upon the virtues that Franklin codified in his autobiography, like justice and gratitude and forgiveness.
讨论和反思富兰克林编纂在他的自传中的美德，比如正义、感激，以及宽恕。
I know civic religion is not enough to remedy the radical inequities of our age.
我知道公民宗教不足以补救我们这个时代的极端不平等。
We need power for that. But power without character is a cure worse than the disease.
我们需要权力才能做到。但没有高尚品德的权力，是比疾病还要糟糕的解药。
I know civic religion alone can't fix corrupt institutions, but institutional reforms without new norms will not last.
我知道单靠公民宗教无法修补腐败的体制，但没有新规范的制度改革不会持久。
Culture is upstream of law. Spirit is upstream of policy. The soul is upstream of the state.
文化是法律的上游。精神是政策的上游。灵魂是国家的上游。
We cannot unpollute our politics if we clean only downstream. We must get to the source.
如果我们只清理下游，那就无法消除政治中的污染。我们必须要回到源头。
The source is our values, and on the topic of values, my advice is simple: have some.
源头就是我们的价值观，至于价值观这个主题，我的建议很简单：要有点价值观。
Make sure those values are prosocial.
要确保那些价值观是亲社会的。
Put them into practice, and do so in the company of others,
实践它们，并且要在他人的陪伴之下去实践，
with a structure of creed, deed and joyful ritual that'll keep all of you coming back.
用教条、作为及快乐仪式的结构来实践，才会让大家持续回来。
Those of us who believe in democracy and believe it is still possible, we have the burden of proving it.
我们这些相信民主且相信民主仍然有可能实现的人，我们要背负证明它的重担。
But remember, it is no burden at all to be in a community where you are seen as fully human,
但别忘了，它完全不会是个负担，如果在你所处的社区中，你被视为完全的人类，
where you have a say in the things that affect you, where you don't need to be connected to be respected.
对于会影响你的事物，你有发言权，你不需要被连结，也可以被尊重。
That is called a blessing, and it is available to all who believe. Thank you.
那就是福气，只要相信的人，都可以得到的。谢谢。
