Claim. Democracy has failed to deliver real liberty and equality over two centuries because it was wedded to individualism, and the policy of separating church and state stripped Christianity of its function as guiding principle, allowing individualism to degenerate into egoism.
Elaboration. Lee argues that liberal democracy is structurally vulnerable: it emerged from bourgeois revolutions overthrowing absolute monarchy, and from the start it bound itself to individualism — a stance that respects personality and individual value but only works if a spiritual standard restrains it from collapsing into self-interest (B. Principle of Mutual Prosperity). When the policy of separation of church and state was implemented, Christianity could no longer function as a guiding principle for the human spirit; individualism then degenerated into egoism, and democracy was built on the resulting egoistic individualism.
The diagnostic evidence: capitalists pursue endless profit maximization; politicians treat power as concessions, investing enormous sums in elections in expectation of return; corruption and crime are rampant. Lincoln’s Gettysburg ideal of “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” has in practice become “government of the party members, by the party members, for the party members.” Lee actually grants the Communist critique of liberal democracy partial validity — it has functioned as bourgeois democracy for the ruling and wealthy classes — while rejecting Communism’s own claim to be the true people’s democracy.
Lee balances the critique with an important concession: liberal democracy has succeeded in one crucial respect — securing freedom of faith. In liberal democratic countries, “the flowers of religion and faith are in full bloom.” This concession is providentially loaded: democracy’s role was precisely to guarantee the freedom in which people could freely receive the Second Advent of the Messiah by their own will. It was never designed to actualize true liberty, equality, and fraternity in itself.
Worth noting: the diagnosis collides with secular liberal political theory, which would identify the church-state separation as enabling rather than corroding democratic legitimacy. The argument is also internally tensioned — it credits the same separation it blames for egoism with creating the conditions for religious flourishing. Critics typically engage on whether “individualism degenerating into egoism” is causally tied to disestablishment or to other factors (consumerism, mass media, capitalism qua capitalism).
See also. democracy-needs-heavenly-fatherism, democracy-as-providential-preparation-for-second-advent, fraternal-democracy-government-of-brothers-and-sisters