Renewing American Leadership

The reality of "Evangelicals and Catholics together" — what Baptist theologian Timothy George calls "the ecumenism of the trenches" — stands evident in Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before It's Too Late (New York :  Faith Words, c. 2012), by James Robison (a noted Baptist evangelist who is the founder and  president of LIFE Outreach International, providing various kinds of relief around the world) and Jay W. Richards (a Catholic scholar currently a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute).  

The two teamed up to write Indivisiblebecause they believe Americans' "freedom, our way of life, and our future are in peril" — largely because of "corrosive" ideas and policies now regnant in our nation (p. xvi).  Commending this treatise, Mike Huckabee says:  "INDIVISIBLE can change forever how you see the world.  Grasp the wisdom shared in this book, and the scripture 'My people perish for lack of knowledge' will no longer apply.  This can prove to be the much needed game-changer for America."  What Indivisiblemakes clear is less a revelation than a reminder — a reminder of the basic moral and political truths our species has ever found the best prescription for living well.  

Robison and Richards seek to remind Christians in America of both their heritage and responsibilities.  As believers they are distressed that a nation which historically enabled Christians to prosper has turned hostile, banishing their convictions from the public square under the banner of the "separation of church and state."  Sadly, much evidence suggests that we now live in a land where militant secularists have established what Archbishop Charles Chaput calls an "'unofficial state atheism'" (p. 36).  

"Citing C.S. Lewis, Robison and Richards insist:  'The very idea of freedom presupposes some objective moral law which overarches rulers and ruled alike.  Unless we return to the crude and nursery-like belief in objective values, we perish'"

This was recently (even as this book was published) made clear as the Obama Administration moved to impose on Christian institutions its commitment to contraception, abortion (the morning-after pill), and sterilization.  Our modern Caesar will allow no religious freedom that challenges its authority.   It is becoming "a secularist atheocracy that tolerates no dissent" (p. 45).  Nothing should concern us more than the incessant encroachments on our religious liberties, clearly protected by the very first provision in the Bill of Rights. 

 

What's needed, first of all, the authors argue, is a recovery of the "first things" traditionally understood as the "natural law," including the right to freely worship and serve God.    Citing C.S. Lewis, Robison and Richards insist:  "'The very idea of freedom presupposes some objective moral law which overarches rulers and ruled alike.  Unless we return to the crude and nursery-like belief in objective values, we perish'" (p. 19).  This is the law known to the Gentiles that St. Paul described as "written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness" (Ro 2:14-16).  And this is the law Thomas Jefferson invoked by declaring, in The Declaration of Independence:  "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

  

Unfortunately, America's roots in the Natural Law have been severed by multitudes of leftist Progressives who contend all law is man-made and infinitely malleable.  Consequently, what rights we enjoy come from an all-powerful State rather than a righteous Creator.  This view was stated categorically by one of the nation's premier progressive presidents, Woodrow Wilson:  "In fundamental theory socialism and democracy are almost if not quite one and the same.  They both rest at bottom upon the absolute right of the community to determine its own destiny and that of its members'" (p. 313).  Wilson's words, uttered a century ago, largely explain the trajectory this nation has since taken under presidents FDR, LBJ, and Barack Obama as the federal government has imposed increasingly socialistic agendas while enlarging the franchise and courting favored constituencies. 

 

Thus we now face and must engage in a variety of battles that will determine the fate of faith, family, and freedom in America, beginning with the most basic of all rights — the right to life.  As George W. Bush, in accord with the Declaration of Independence, declared, the "right to life cannot be granted or denied by government because it does not come from government, it comes from the Creator of life" (p. 88).  Thus Christians through the centuries have steadfastly opposed abortion.  "The unborn child," said John Calvin, "though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being . . . and should not be robbed of the life which has not yet begun to enjoy.  If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely be deemed more atrocious to destroy an unborn child in the womb before it has come to light" (p. 90).  Conservative Evangelicals and Catholics have united in opposing abortion — and their endeavor has helped nudge the American public slowly in pro-life directions.  So we must persevere in the effort to legally protect all persons, no matter how small.  (To Robison this is a deeply personal issue, for he is "the product of rape."  His mother, a single woman, chose to sustain his life and subsequently released him to a foster family, and he remains forever grateful to the mother who sustained his life in the womb.)

  

The rights to marry and procreate are — as John Finnis explains in Natural Law and Natural Rights — rooted in the inalienable right to life.  The family is, in a profound way, the most primary of our natural institutions.  Thus Robison and Richards devote several chapters to issues regarding it:  "A Man Shall Cling to His Wife," "It takes a Family," "Train Up A Child in the Way He Should Go."  Only a life-long, monogamous, heterosexual, conjugal union — i.e., marriage — is truly good for mankind, but we are now witnessing   (through adultery, divorce, same-sex unions, etc.) a powerful offensive against it that must be resisted.  So too we must insist that children need mothers and fathers!  They may survive in other societal structures, but they only really thrive in families.  Tragically, all the evidence indicates that the socialistic Welfare State, displacing and replacing moms and dads, educating youngsters in godless schools, does permanent harm to the most vulnerable among us, our children.

  

For families to thrive, folks need homes — "a place to call our own."  Such a place is necessarily a bit of real estate-private property.  Accordingly, to John Adams:  "'The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not the force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence'" (p. 191).  Founders like Adams "understood that our right to property is an extension of ourselves and our liberty" (p. 195).  Property rights, secured by law, are basic to the flourishing of both families and communities.  Still more, as Pope Leo XIII wrote, "in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, 'The first and most fundamental principle . . . if one would undertake to alleviate the condition of the masses, must be the inviolability of private property'" (p. 196).  

Private property has been under assault for more than a century as Socialists and Progressives have sought to implement the ideology of the French Revolution (liberty, equality, fraternity) and establish social and economic equality — imposing affirmative action quotas in universities, unions and corporations; mandating risky loans for homes, in accord with the Community Investment Act; and "spreading the wealth around" through progressive taxation, to cite Barack Obama.  

The United States took a fateful turn when President Lyndon Johnson launched his Great Society in the '60s, determined that "we seek not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result'" (pp. 311-312).   He illustrated the fact that for more than a century "the left flank of our culture has been feeding us the lie that justice means sameness or equality in everything.  Although this has the patina of morality, it just reinforcing a sinful impulse called envy" (p. 247). 

 

"Contrary to the Marxists' 'labor theory,' the 'economic value of something is determined not by its cost of production but by how much someone is willing to give up freely to get it'"

Resisting that ideology, Robison and Richards support "freedom economics," allowing ordinary individuals (remarkably different in their interests and abilities) to determine how to earn a living and invest their assets.  Richards, the author of Money, Greed, and God, recounts a vital lesson he learned in the sixth grade, playing a game which enabled all the students to freely trade toys their teacher gave them; in the end, everyone had traded up (in terms of what was most desirable) and a "win-win" status was established.  Contrary to the Marxists' "labor theory," the "economic value of something is determined not by its cost of production but by how much someone is willing to give up freely to get it" (p. 217).   As is historically evident in the past two centuries, freedom economics maximizes human potential. 

 

The grandeur of this freedom is that it enables us to "be fruitful and multiply" and "till the earth" in accord with the ancient biblical injunctions given our first parents.  "'When God fashions man from the dust of the earth, and breathes into him the breath of life, and speaks those first words of vocation to the human family,' says Rev. Robert Sirico, 'He, in effect is inviting the human family to be co-creators with Him, . . . "working with Him" in the continuation of the creation of the world'" (p. 263).  Perfectly illustrating this is Norman Borlaug, the agronomist "father of the Green Revolution" whose hybrid seeds and farming strategies now enable billions of people to escape the threat of starvation.  He alone, arguably, did more to alleviate world hunger than all the governmental and non-governmental aid organizations allegedly addressing the problem!

"John Paul II rightly said, 'man's principal resource is man himself.  His intelligence enables him to discover the earth's productive potential and the many different ways in which human needs can be satisfied'"

Importantly:  wealth-such as the prolific harvests now possible as a result of Borlaug's work — is created, not captured.  The world's great natural resource is knowledgeand imagination, not silver and gold, coal and oil.  Though we obviously need earth's "natural resources" to work with, John Paul II rightly said, "'man's principal resource is man himself.  His intelligence enables him to discover the earth's productive potential and the many different ways in which human needs can be satisfied'" (p. 305). Unfortunately, many thinkers (ranging from Harvard professors and Washington politicians to denominational bureaucrats and "Occupy Wall Street" protestors) cling to the old, easily-discredited mercantilist image of the world's wealth as a pie with everyone struggling to get a larger piece.   Thus in the name of "fairness" socialist and progressive governments insist they must step in and make sure that no one gets too much of the pie.  Robison and Richards warn that such efforts cannot but enslave and diminish men and women designed to freely work with God in having "dominion" on this good earth. 

 

Though one must always take book endorsements with a grain of salt, I cannot improve on the recommendation of Indivisible by Eric Metaxas, the author of the majestic biography, Bonhoeffer:  "James Robison and Jay Richards have given America a tremendous gift.  INDIVISIBLE is a stunning synthesis and super-clear explanation of the most important issues facing us today, full of wisdom and grace and truth.  It should give all who read it real hope that god has not forsaken this nation and that there is indeed a way forward.  I pray that book groups will study this book and use it to become part of the solution, so that American might again fulfill God's call upon her, to be a beacon of hope and freedom for the world."