We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made for only a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. (John Adams, October 11, 1798: 2nd President of the United States of America.)
The depth and passion of religion in the early formation of America had a huge impact on secular society. It is true that the Christian religion was practiced in Europe at the time of the founding of America and even throughout the nineteenth century.
Virtually all European countries had state-sponsored religions that were woefully entangled with the governments and cultures. The state-sponsored religions often received certain leveraged legal standings and were largely controlled by financial subsidies doled out by the governments.
America followed different religious traditions that began with the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. That is not to say, however, that the leaders of the new nation all held to the same theologies, doctrines, denominations, or religious traditions. They did not. They did, however, emphatically agree that the new nation would be established under one God, with liberty and justice for all.
There would be a breadth of religious freedom and the absence of any state assistance. Both of these considerations would be explicitly protected by the first amendment of the Bill of Rights.
American churches had to compete in the marketplace for their members. The most vital of those churches were the ones that held most consistently and enthusiastically to the central Christian doctrines. The new nation that was being built was a radical experiment in governance. Somehow, they had the divine insight that this new national experiment was not going to make it as a democratic republic unless it was built on the principles of “goodness.”
The dissenters of Europe became the Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians and Methodists of America. They had a certain confidence that humans possess a unique capacity to attain, through invitation and development, excellence of character. They knew that the new experiment had to be built on that high standard of goodness.
It was going to take dependence on the Spirit of Truth, attitudes and actions of kindness, generosity, fairness, sympathy, personal responsibility, virtue, justice, righteousness and a whole lot of heavenly wisdom, to make the new experiment become an enduring reality.
The early leaders had a distinct vision that God was a God of “goodness.”. Indeed, He was the very author of goodness revealed in Spirit and Truth. His enduring interest in His created human beings on earth was for their personal advancement in liberty – the very freedom and liberty to on purpose choose to worship God according to the dictates of their own personal conscience. It was a liberty to construct and manage a commonly agreed upon form of governance and a liberty of the personal integrity to successfully pursue a pathway of goodness all the days of their lives.
As the early settlers began to take up residence in the new land, some unique behavioral patterns could be observed. There were certain moral and social commitments being expressed between the new neighbors. Voluntary mutual assistance among unrelated people who happened to be living alongside each other was becoming the quiet rule of the day in matters great and small. Some may have called it “neighborliness” but it was nothing more or less than intentional “goodness.”
If a family needed to have a barn constructed, neighboring families would rally around and build the needed building in no time at all. Agricultural resources; seeds, methods, and scarce tools would be shared between families. Informal agreements would be made among the individuals to watch over and protect each other’s personal and real property. There existed a healthy willingness to get engaged in solving civic problems or volunteering to fill necessary government positions.
When a felt-need arose, there was a delightful spirit of social trust that answered that need whether it was a shared sack of corn, a cup of sugar or a helping hand during inclement weather. That confidence in “goodness” encouraged the new neighbors to be willing to share their time and possessions with others with the secure understanding that the good deed would find reciprocation somewhere down the road.
But our second President, John Adams, spoke prophetically, clear back in 1798. Should the governed of this unique experiment called a Constitutional Republic choose to throw off the bridle of morality, righteousness and goodness, and willfully choose attitudes and behaviors of avarice, selfishness, corruption, evil manipulation and destruction, then the designed means of governance based on that Constitution, would in no way, be able to contend with such attitudes and actions – any more than a simple fishing net would be able to hold the viciousness of a giant whale.
You see, life is full of alternatives – alternatives demand choices – choices set into motion consequences – the governed are allowed to make the choices – but they do not have the power to determine the consequences that are set into motion by those choices.
When the expressed aim is to cancel not only the constructive characteristics of “goodness” – like justice, honesty, fairness, virtue, personal responsibility, and kindness, -- but also to willfully endeavor to cancel and eradicate the very Author of Goodness from a culture, then, it is only rational, that you cannot expect to experience the same positive benefits that once were received.
The history of humans on this earth has recorded a number of dramatic “Great Awakenings” where the reset button of a continuing unrighteous saga was activated, one way or another, allowing for the beginning of a new chapter. Perhaps we will get to experience another “Great Awakening.”
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. (John Adams, October 11, 1798: 2nd President of the United States of America.)
Next Week: Goodness is the Correction Mechanism for Civilization