The Impossible Lie

Seeking the Source of American Preeminence after an Age of Looking in all the Wrong Places

There is no such thing as the separation of church (religious morality) and state (governance) as is taught, erroneously, today. The problem is not only that the separation doctrine is wrong, but simply put it is an impossibility just as lighting a match underwater is impossible. The reason is simple. A shared morality is essential to any civilization. Morality is the basis of civil law, economic exchange, and social compliance and unity. Every society, therefore, must choose some common, shared moral code. Without such a code, any society descends into chaos and anarchy. Its legal system becomes incoherent, the people lose faith in it, and mob rule is left to enforce “justice.” Commerce is jeopardized as contracts can no longer be relied upon for the exchange of goods and services. Property ownership, prosperity by merit, economic mobility, and innovation are all replaced by brute coercion. In the end, the society splinters into Alvin Toffler’s fractionalized subcultures of countermanding and often conflicting values which eventually culminate in riots in the streets. There is no escape. Every society, even our own, must either choose a common moral code or die.

The idea of a shared moral code as a social necessity is not new. St. Augustine summarized it best in his blueprint for Western civilization, “The City of God” when he wrote:

How you view God (the something greater than yourself including God, Allah or Humanism . . .) determines how you view your fellow man (virtuous, evil, or brute animal); How you view your fellow man determines what government you shall have (a minimal government of a virtuous people, an oppressive government to protect us from each other, or a totalitarian government to manage and cull the herd) and it is that government that will determine whether you live in freedom or bondage. (emphasis mine)

Therefore, the separation of religion (the basis of morality) and state governance has always been an irrational contradiction that cannot truly exist among men. We are the first generation of American society to misconstrue this reality and herein lies the danger. Should a cultural turning point occur when this false premise becomes mainstream, then we will be in dire peril, ignorant of the consequences of the choice we are collectively about to make. Today’s steadfast denial of this connection between moral belief and state governance is a deception repeated throughout history. Always, it has allowed others to commandeer the definition of civilization and to impose their own alternate moralities on countries and their people without debate and without consent. The separation doctrine is not progress; it is a throwback to a dangerous and repressive age.

The brilliant historian and cultural dynamisist, Neil Howe, noted that major decision periods cycle roughly every 90 to 105 years. These are periods in which a given civilization rethinks its legacy in the midst of misguided and increasingly distrusted institutions of government, education, commerce, and justice. Howe calls this the 4^th Turning and, as he and his associate William Strauss predicted nearly 50 years ago, we in the United States are at that point--right on time. Alvin Toffler also predicted the pattern of societal anarchy that we see in current news throughout his book Future Shock. Is it no coincidence that a recent survey by the Pew Institute noted that over two-thirds of Americans believe that something is wrong in our national government and society, though they cannot put their finger on what or why. Each society must choose its own morality, but it must take great care not to choose wrongly. The society that chooses wrongly makes that mistake only once. The result will last for generations. There are no “do overs.”

The specific moral code we adopt and, thus, the direction that America and Western civilization goes will be posited by intellectuals and determined by common folks --one humble decision of resistance or compliance at a time. Through each daily decision, repeated millions of times over, we will be the ones to determine our national destiny on behalf of our children, grandchildren, and many generations to come.

Recently, We the People have been given the opportunity to govern again. But are we ready? Due to a declining American educational system, we know not who we are. We are unaware of the stumbling blocks to liberty that took millennia to overcome. We, as a people, are naive regarding the machinations of statists, allowing them to swap secured freedoms for false security. We are unaware what history teaches us of the cause and effect of similar decisions made by generations before us. In the same way that the political sage Erasmus prepared a prince to govern justly, the content to follow may be one of the most important tools for the decision point we find ourselves. It’s time to learn liberty. This is the purpose behind my writing.

Next Time

From our Church’s pulpits, we have been told to be obedient to our rulers without exception (Romans 13:1-7). But who is that? Who are the legitimate rulers of an American Republic? Many American pastors blindly refer to this scripture without a thought of asking this deeper question. The answer reveals why our Founder’s government is the one exception in human history and why our Founders believed so profoundly that it would work. The perfect alignment of Biblical Christianity and our Founder’s principles of liberty is where we are going next in “Who Are the Rulers?”

Till then, May God and Liberty Bless.