Of all the political maps and charts relative to last week’s election, the one that struck me the most came from the New York Times. The map is composed of red arrows pointing to the right where US counties moved in the Republicans’ direction and blue arrows pointing to the left where counties moved in the Democrats’ direction. The map is awash in red with only a few nearly indiscernible spots of blue.
The accompanying article states: “Of the counties with nearly complete results, more than 90 percent shifted in favor of former President Donald J. Trump in the 2024 presidential election.”
This direction is obvious to those on both sides of the election. “America is different,” New York Times writers David French and Patrick Healy lamented the night of the election. Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan was glad to agree: “America, after its long journey through the 2010s and ’20s, is becoming more conservative again.”
For those whose values could be considered more conservative than progressive or liberal, this news perhaps indicates that our nation has not devolved from our Judeo-Christian moral foundations as far as many feared.
But there is a cloud in this silver lining.
“Civil war carried on by other means”
Following last week’s election, I have been thinking of numerous Christians in public service I have known over the years. Each was grateful for the efforts of believers who worked to help them win their election. Without exception, however, each was frustrated that these same believers did not then become more involved in the communities and governments their leaders were elected to serve.
As several told me, it was as if Christians thought they did all they needed to do by voting for candidates they thought would advance their values. They did not understand that in a democratic republic, elected officials can only do so much to change society.
In his classic book, The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America, Richard John Neuhaus observed, “In a democratic society, state and society must draw from the same moral well.” Americans do not have autocrats or theocrats ruling us from values we may not share or understand. To the contrary, we elect leaders to do what we wish them to do.
In a democracy, our leaders cannot lead us where we are unwilling to go or give us what we are unwilling to receive, which is why Thomas Jefferson observed, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”
Accordingly, if Americans do not coalesce around the consensual morality that was foundational to the beginning of our nation, we can expect our political divisions and rancor to persist. As Neuhaus warned, “In the absence of a public ethic, we arrive at the point where, in Alasdair MacIntyre’s arresting phrase, ‘politics becomes civil war carried on by other means.’”
“Where liberty under law and justice can triumph”
On this Veterans’ Day, we have reason to give profound thanks for the millions of men and women who served our nation and defended our freedoms. But the cause for which they served and many died is a cause that must be served by every generation.
As Ronald Reagan famously warned in his 1967 Inaugural Address as governor of California, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.”
Earlier in that address, Mr. Reagan also stated:
It is inconceivable to me that anyone could accept this delegated authority without asking God’s help. And I pray that we of the legislature and the administration can be granted the wisdom and the strength beyond our own limited powers. That with divine guidance we can avoid easy expedience. That we can work to build a state where liberty under law and justice can triumph, where compassion can govern and wherein the people can participate and prosper because of their government and not in spite of it.
Now the path we chart is not an easy one. It demands much of those chosen to govern, but also from those who did the choosing.
“Quite a different house from the one you thought of”
This same “path” lies before our nation today.
Here’s the problem: It is difficult to motivate people to be more moral than they already are. In a democracy, the only way to effect lasting change is to inspire people to want to change.
To this end, what America needs most is for America’s Christians to be the actual presence of Christ. Nothing less than Christlike character will do. Nothing less than Christlike compassion, courage, wisdom, evangelism, and ministry will suffice.
As the brilliant sociologist James Davison Hunter demonstrates persuasively in To Change the World, culture is changed most effectively not by winning elections, building large churches, or gaining social popularity, but by people who achieve their highest place of influence and then live there effectively. He calls this manifesting “faithful presence.”
My prayer is that you and I settle for nothing less than lives so transformed by God’s Spirit that our secularized society wants the change they see in us.
In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis made my point in a powerful and poignant way:
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to?
The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage, but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.
Are you so submitted to God’s Spirit that he can build nothing less than a “palace” with you today?
Monday news to know:
*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.
Quote for the day:
“I know of no other way to triumph over sin long-term than to gain a distaste for it because of a superior satisfaction in God” —John Piper
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