Restoring Civic Virtue – Faith and Law

On September 6, 2017, during a confirmation hearing for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Senator Diane Feinstein called into question Barrett’s Roman Catholic faith, implying that her orthodox views might prevent her from judging fairly. During the hearing, Feinstein said, “When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern when you come to big issues…” This appears to: 1. Set up a religious test for the bench. 2. Violate Ms. Barrett's First Amendment rights.

Restoring Civic Virtue – The Old Testament View

The Old Testament clearly teaches us that the virtue of a people is important. Those that practice virtue will experience blessing, while those that practice evil will eventually be judged. It also illustrates that virtue is an important characteristic of leaders, for when the leaders, like David and Solomon are virtuous, the people prosper, but when the leaders stray from righteousness, the people suffer.

Restoring Civic Virtue – The First Great Awakening

The Founders were also influenced by the First Great Awakening which took place in the American colonies In the early 18th century. The preaching of clergymen such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield had both a social and political impact on colonial America. In short the revival of the early 18th century prepared the American colonies for self-government.

Restoring Civic Virtue – Recovery from Hurricane Harvey

Once again, I am going to depart from the original plan for this blog series. In the previous post I discussed the violence in Charlottesville as an example of the breakdown of civic virtue. This week I would like to contrast Charlottesville with the heroic rescue and recovery operations underway in the Houston area. Certainly,…