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Right Now, Americans Have A Window Of Opportunity To Fortify Our Nation’s Moral Foundation

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One week ago, Americans spoke loudly and clearly to keep the American experiment alive.

A few years back, I visited the National Archives here in Washington, D.C., with a Member of Congress. We had the rare privilege of seeing some of our nation’s founding documents — papers not typically on public display. It wasn’t a “National Treasure” adventure, but it was an unforgettable moment for a student of history like me. One of these documents was the original U.S. Senate’s markup of the Bill of Rights, sent over from the House in 1789.

Another was a simple but profound page: George Washington’s inaugural address, delivered on April 30, 1789. His speech was brief — only about 10 minutes — but the words were powerful. As he took his first steps as the leader of a new nation, Washington said:

“Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained: And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”

From the very beginning, our republican form of government — placing the power to govern into the hands of the people — was viewed as an “experiment.” Why? Because nothing like it had ever been tried before. Self-government, grounded in the rule of law and crafted for a nation this vast and diverse, was unprecedented. The Constitution was new, untested, and the Founders knew that true power now rested with the people, not a monarchy or ruling elite. They also understood that this experiment depended not only on good laws but on a bedrock of virtue and morality, rooted in timeless truth.

John Adams captured this reality in 1798. “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people,” he insisted. “It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Washington had previously stated this point in his Farewell Address in 1796. This grand experiment of ours, he reminded us, could not survive if truth and morality were ignored or discarded.

And thank God, there are still Americans who understand that reality today — who saw that what Kamala Harris offered was an agenda that would have aborted this experiment and snuffed out our hard-won freedoms.

But we can’t be lulled into complacency. The American experiment isn’t on autopilot; it is not “safe and secure.” Our work is far from over. Right now, we have an opportunity, a window, to fortify the moral foundation of this experiment — to restore, promote, and protect what Washington called the two great pillars of our political prosperity: religion and morality.

As the scriptures declare: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand. He also served two terms as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, and served as Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
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‘Direct Assault On The Safety Of Children’: California Gov. Signs First Of It’s Kind Anti-Parental Notification Bill

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill this week that allows schools to hide information from parents about their child’s gender identity.

AB 1955 is the first of its kind in the United States. It prohibits school staff “from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent.”

The law—which passed through both chambers of the state’s Democrat-controlled Assembly—means that children can identify by their biological sex at home and a different gender at school. The bill claims that it is designed to protect children and teens by keeping such critical information from parents.

Jonathan Keller, president of the California Family Council, pointed out that the bill strips parents of their rights and endangers children. “Governor Newsom’s signing of AB 1955 is a direct assault on the safety of children and the rights of their parents. By allowing schools to withhold vital information from mothers and fathers, this bill undermines their fundamental role and places boys and girls in potential jeopardy,” he said in a statement. “Moms and dads have both a constitutional and divine mandate to guide and protect their kids, and AB 1955 egregiously violates this sacred trust.”

The Liberty Justice Center has already filed a lawsuit to challenge AB 1955. “PK-12 minor students, most of whom are too young to drive, vote or provide medical consent for themselves, are also too young to make life-altering decisions about their expressed gender identity without their parents’ knowledge. But that is precisely what AB 1955 enables—with potentially devastating consequences for children too young to fully comprehend them,” said Emily Rae, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center

Eight states—South Carolina, North Carolina, Idaho, North Dakota, Tennessee, Alabama, Iowa and Indiana—have laws protecting parents’ rights and requiring school staff to notify parents if their child identifies as a different gender at school. At least five more states are currently pursuing similar legislation.

The assertion that parents and state teachers share partial ownership over children caused Ken Ham, the founder of Answers In Genesis, to pen an important article titled, “Who Owns Children?”

“Who ‘owns’ the children—parents or the government? In our day and age, many involved in western government believe it’s the government that owns kids,” he described. “Many believe they know what is best for children and think they should get to dictate what children learn—and parents are just in the way of accomplishing the state’s goals.”

“And that shouldn’t surprise us because how you answer the question of ‘Who owns the children?’ depends on your starting point and the worldview you build that’s based on that starting point,” he explained.

“If you reject God and his Word, then anything goes—there’s no absolute standard on which to base your thinking. In this view, children are just biological machines, the product of millions of years of evolution. They aren’t given to parents—they are just a ‘choice’ parents made,” Ham continued. “But when we start with God’s Word, we learn that children are a gift from God—given to parents. He has given parents authority over their children and the responsibility of training, teaching, and raising children. They are not just “choices,” nor are they the government’s responsibility—children are parent’s responsibility because God gave children to their parents to train them up for him.”

“You see, the family unit didn’t evolve. God created the family when he created marriage (Genesis 1:27 and Gen. 2:24) and told the first couple to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28),” he underscored. “He entrusted children to parents to raise them in accord with the principles he has laid down for us in his Word (e.g., Psalm 127:3).”

 

ByDecision Magazine July 17, 2024

‘Direct Assault On The Safety Of Children’: California Gov. Signs First Of It’s Kind Anti-Parental Notification Bill