America was conceived not in a courtroom or a capitol building, but in the pulpit. Nearly 250 years ago, men like the Rev. Jonathan Mayhew preached liberty long before it was declared in Philadelphia. They reminded their congregations that civil government is accountable to God’s moral law and that resistance to tyranny is obedience to righteousness. From those sermons came a nation — founded on the belief that rights are not granted by men, but endowed by our Creator.
As one founder famously declared, this great nation was not built on vague religiosity, but on the moral truths of Christianity and the Gospel itself. America’s liberty was born from the conviction that truth is not subjective and that morality cannot be separated from faith.
Yet, that foundation has been steadily eroded. The phrase “separation of church and state” has been twisted from its original intent. It was never designed to remove faith from public life; it was designed to keep government out of the church. The wall was meant to protect the sacred, not to silence it. Today, that wall has been turned inside out. The state now claims authority over truth itself — defining morality according to ideology and replacing divine law with human preference.
Our founders understood the necessity of both moral law and civil law. Moral law comes from God and is written on the human heart — it reveals that life is sacred, truth matters and freedom demands virtue. Civil law exists to secure those moral truths through constitutions, courts and statutes. Remove moral law from civil law, and freedom collapses into chaos. Replace God’s moral law with man’s moral relativism, and freedom becomes tyranny disguised as tolerance.
John Adams wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
He understood that liberty cannot exist apart from virtue, because if man will not govern himself by conscience, he will be governed by force. As Benjamin Franklin warned, if men will not be governed by God, they will be governed by tyrants. Scripture echoes this truth: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). True freedom flows from truth, not from the denial of it.
Over time, government has not simply distanced itself from faith — it has replaced faith with its own religion of self. It has redefined institutions once grounded in divine order — marriage, life and even gender — replacing what was once sacred with what is now subjective.
It calls a baby in the womb merely a “clump of cells.” It teaches children that they can change their sex as easily as they change clothes, and even hides those choices from parents. Boys who identify as girls are now allowed to compete in girls’ sports — robbing young women of fairness, safety and the dignity of their own spaces. In public schools, children are introduced to sexual ideology long before they are old enough to understand it. This is not neutrality — it is indoctrination. It is the worship of self over truth, of feeling over fact. And it often hides behind the mask of false compassion — an emotional plea that confuses acceptance with love and approval with kindness. Yet, genuine compassion doesn’t silence truth; it speaks it, even when the world refuses to listen.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). That warning echoes across time. When a nation declares that God’s order no longer applies, confusion becomes the new creed. When government denies that God created man and woman, or that every unborn child is fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13–14), it denies the very image of God in humanity.
Thomas Jefferson asked, “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis — a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?” That question still demands an answer. Liberty cannot survive without the moral conviction that it is a divine trust, not a government grant.
George Washington warned, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” These words were not ceremonial — they were prophetic. A people who abandon moral truth cannot long remain free. The moral law reminds every ruler, judge, and citizen that they are accountable to a higher authority — “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1).
The solution is not a theocracy but a restoration of courage and balance. Civil law should protect liberty, not define morality. The church must once again guide conscience, not hide from controversy. For too long, many believers have withdrawn, convinced that politics is “too messy” or “too divisive.” But silence in the face of evil is itself a moral failure. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
The church was once the moral compass of this nation. It must be again. Believers are called to engage — not as partisans, but as ambassadors of truth. We must defend life, stand for God’s design for family and gender, and refuse to surrender the public square to those who would erase God from it. This is not about power; it is about obedience. The light of truth must not hide under a basket when darkness fills the room.
America’s future depends on the church reclaiming its voice. We cannot preserve freedom without virtue, and we cannot have virtue without God. The pulpit that once birthed a revolution of liberty must now ignite a renewal of truth. “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).
The answer is clear: we rebuild them — starting with courage, conviction and faith that once again turns the hearts of this nation back to God.
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Sean Swope is a Republican Lewis County commissioner representing District 1.
