American’s also easily absorbed German sociologist Max Weber’s notion of "lifestyles." Personal and cultural values required expression, and their expression constituted a lifestyle. "Lifestyles justify any way of life, and values justify any opinion." Furthermore, Sigmund Freud provided eager Americans a basis for exploring and directly expressing their sexuality as well. We saw ourselves as truly becoming "free" in an existential sense.

It must be said, however, that none of these German thinkers intended for their ideas to be so trivialized. Nietzsche believed that the sublimation of sexuality contributed to the emergence of high culture, and even Freud believed that unrestrained sexual expression was pathological. This did not deter American’s from declaring themselves free at last. Now freedom in America is popularly considered in terms of a person’s "right" to choose one’s own values and one’s own lifestyle and to express these values without restraint. 

Furthermore, this "right" should be protected by law. In fact, there is something pathological about one who suggests that there are universal moral and intellectual truths that apply to all men at all times. Our current condition seems ironically like the state of nature Enlightenment thinkers felt compelled to escape, a condition in which each man seeks to do only what is right in his own eyes rather than align his life according to transcendent principles. Hence, we find ourselves ripe for a statist tyranny.

In contrast, John Adams asserted, "It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue."

Patrick Henry declared, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded...on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."

William Penn adds simply, "If we are not governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants."

Alexis de Tocqueville seconded our founding fathers when he stated, "Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith."

Even among the founders of our nation who were not professing Christians, there was agreement that the Christian religion provided the strongest moral foundation upon which to rest a society within which even an atheist could be free. Our founders would not have been fooled by the myth of neutrality and moral relativism upon which modern secularism is based. They knew that liberty and justice for all could thrive only in a virtuous society, one in which true religion, although not legally established, still guided the culture and the moral legislation of the nation. They understood that true religion developed the virtues that placed the restraints on freedom necessary to let freedom ring.

Having diagnosed how we have lost our way, in our next post, we will begin to explore how we may reestablish the seven virtues as a foundation for a new order.

Blessings,

Arnie Gentile

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