I do not ask this question lightly, but, rather, in earnest sincerity:

Do We REALLY Want to Restore America’s Founding Principles?

Because, if we do, then we have the roadmap for how to do so.  All we have to do is dust it off and follow it.

I have been complaining about the continuing decay of our society and the resulting growth in the lawlessness that results for several decades now.  The most common question asked of me as a result is,

“So, what do we do about it?”

I have given the same answer every time, and I am met with the same rejection — every time.  The pattern is so consistent as to lead me to conclude that the answer to my question is:

No!  We do not want to restore America’s founding principles!

Before I conclude my case, let me start where the founders started — with a sincere examination of the relevant history.  It is such an appeal to historic experience that led Patrick Henry to ask the following of his countrymen leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence:

“I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received?”

The Founders started with the Old Testament, then they expanded their search of history to all known experiences of the past (their words, not mine).  They looked at what those who sought Liberty had had to say about Liberty; what it was — and was not — and how best to achieve and preserve it.  Then they studied what had been done to compliment those ideas and how well they worked toward their stated purposes.  Finally, they concluded that Liberty must be rooted in morality, and morality must be rooted in religion.  Thus, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court said:

“No human society has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty apart from the moral precepts of the Christian Religion applied and accepted by all the classes.  Should our republic ere forget this fundamental precept of governance, mean are certain to shed their responsibilities for licentiousness and this great experiment will then surely be doomed.”

–Chief Justice John Jay, from a speech to the American Bible Society, May 9, 1822

The Founders’ quest came as a direct result of the Great Awakening, as acknowledged by none other than ‘the Atlas of the American Revolution,’ John Adams:

“The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations … This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”

What’s more, the Civil War, and the correction of our ‘founding sin’ (i.e. slavery), came out of the wake of the Second Great Awakening.

In truth, the connection between America’s founding principles and the Judaeo/Christian faith cannot be separated.  And, to the extent that this faith has remained strong, our nation has flourished.  However, starting with the advent of socialism and its American cousin, progressivism, we have been shedding our faith.  And, predictably, our nation has fallen farther and farther into the abyss.  History is clear on this, we need but look at the correlation between when we kicked God out of the public square in the mid 1960’s and the decay in our social statistics ever since.  The numbers are too clear to deny causality.

So, when I am asked how we can restore America to its founding ideals, I always answer:

“By following the Founders’ example.”

They even discussed this among themselves.  They knew these days would come, and they did their best to preserve an accurate record of their efforts — to guide us from beyond the grave:

“It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God.”

George Washington, as quoted by Gouverneur Morris in Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, March 25, 1787

President Washington said that the Founders should raise a standard for future generations to consult, so we can see where they went wrong and use their failures to guide us in restoring their ideals.  But what would be our common ground?

Man must have a common ideal around which to rally or He cannot work collectively.  So, what is our common ideal today?  What common belief unites and binds those of us seeking to restore the American ideal?  I submit that their is no uniting ideal within our society — not anymore.  What’s more, when I remind people what the Founders said united them, the Founders are rejected:

“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”

–John Adams

But no one wants to hear about ‘Christianity.’  The nation wants the American ideal without the source of that ideal.  But this is an impossibility.  Oh, sure, we will mouth the words of the Bible:

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NASB)

¹⁴ and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

But we refuse to live them because:

Isaiah 29:13 (NASB)

¹³ Then YHWH said,

“Because this people approaches Me with their words
And honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of the commandment of men that is taught;

Which brings me back to my original question:

Do We REALLY Want to Restore America’s Founding Principles?

And my answer — sadly — is no, it does not appear so…