For at least the second time this year, Marco Rubio delivered a stirring speech championing the virtues of Western civilization--"a civilization," he said last week from the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, "that we must fight to defend today with the same passion as our forefathers did."

The same week, Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, announced that the Pentagon would livestream the execution of the Fort Hood killer. President Donald Trump decided to buy diesel fuel directly from Russia, potentially amounting to billions in funding for Vladimir Putin's war machine. And The Wall Street Journal reported that Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, was under investigation by the State Department's inspector general for receiving improper gifts in exchange for political and business favors. (She was removed from the position.)

Is this what the secretary of state meant by Western civilization?

In fact, all people, including non-Westerners who aren't yet its beneficiaries, should want to celebrate, defend and perpetuate Western civilization. But that requires a basic understanding of what Western civilization is. The Trump administration, above all, could use a primer.

At its base, it's a civilization that rests on three pillars.

The first is the quest for truth. "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts," the Psalms say, "and in the hidden part........

© Arkansas Online