“Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is impossible that a nation of infidels or idolaters should be a nation of freemen. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.” – Patrick Henry
Take a moment to think about Patrick Henry’s words in the context of current events and ask yourself – are we still moral and religious people or has our public conscience been corrupted by bad men?
I would say no, many – most of the societal or cultural problems we have today stem from a breakdown of the moral foundations of our nation. Faith & morality are the glue that binds a free society together. We cannot enjoy the fruits of civil liberty without the guardrails of morality. Plato said, “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” Good people are grounded – guided by their faith & morality.
For generations the bible & biblical principle where a core part of American public education. That started to change in the progressive era of the early 20th century. By the 1970s the Ten Commandments & prayer had been exiled from public education. Our society – and culture have been slowly coarsening ever since.
American lexicographer & textbook author Noah Webster, said, “Education is useless without the Bible. The moral principles and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible. The man who weakens or destroys the authority of that book is an accessory to all the public disorders that society is doomed to suffer.”
Maybe it’s time we returned to classics-based education that reinforces the moral, ethical & spiritual principles this nation was built on and that served us well for generations.