
Driving down the street recently, I noticed a sign in a front yard making a moral argument. It said, “IN THIS HOUSE, WE BELIEVE BLACK LIVES MATTER, WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS, NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL, SCIENCE IS REAL, LOVE IS LOVE.” I have seen other versions of this sign which also include something like “KINDNESS IS EVERYTHING.”
Of course, while every one of those statements are true on their face, what does it mean to the person who purchased the sign? For instance, everyone I meet believes “Science is real” but what does it mean in the mind of the sign’s author? If “Women’s rights” mean death for a pre-born baby, someone’s “human rights” are being violated. If “Kindness is everything” means abolishing the basic human right of a free mind in the name of political correctness, what kind of “kindness” is this?
These are questions beside the point I want to make here, though. What really intrigues me about every one of those statements is that they are an appeal to the moral code understood to be built into every human mind. That moral code is understood to be the “Moral Norm;” a sense of truth held in common with all humanity.
Our Founding Fathers were strong believers that such a code undergirds a free society. John Adams said it this way, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
We, as Americans, know that self-government can only be sustained by those who govern themselves. The basis of our freedom is not found in our economy; it is found in our morality.
That is why every candidate that fights to receive your endorsement tries to root themselves in a moral argument. The challenge for the thoughtful voter today is to pierce through the fog of politics and look at the truth claims made by the speaker.
Truth matters. Beware the candidate for office who claims that budgets are more important than what they derisively call “social issues.” Often the impression is given that being a mere manager of government is a far more important quality than understanding the philosophy of good government. Every candidate for political office should be a student of the morals that undergird Liberty. If they have their moral philosophy right, their economic philosophy almost always tends toward Liberty.
At Family Policy Alliance of Wyoming, we support the kind of statesmen who will affirm the statement of Benjamin Franklin, “…the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men.”
We need statesmen who will say, “In this house, we will serve the Lord!”
Sincerely,
Nathan Winters
Executive Director