So, how to rebuild a culture of virtue and civic duty?

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Rev. Jonathan Edwards, a leader of the Great A...Image via WikipediaChristians know something else: true virtue, and hence genuine happiness, is not merely a matter of thinking correctly or behaving properly. 


As Jonathan Edwards put it, the seat of true virtue is in the heart. Real happiness flows from character and comes to those, as Jesus said, who are poor in spirit, merciful and meek, and who hunger and thirst for righteousness and peace.


Can freedom survive where virtue doesn't thrive? 
Some of the founders were less than fully orthodox in their theology, but they believed this: No person or nation can be good without God. This is why, in setting forth the most radical program for self-government in human history, they appealed not only to nature, but also to nature's God.
Alexis Charles Henry de TocquevilleImage via WikipediaTrue virtue is personal, but it is never merely private. It involves a commitment to civic duty and the common good—traits seen so clearly by Alexis de Tocqueville in the Americans of the 1830s.
"Americans of all ages, conditions, and all dispositions constantly unite together … to found seminaries, build inns, construct church
es … They establish hospitals, prisons, schools by the same method."
This vision has not been completely lost, but it is at risk today. Narcissistic relativism ("there is no absolute truth") and secular historicism ("the human story lacks ultimate meaning") have become the norms for private decision making and public discourse. The results are deeply troubling.
The corner of Wall Street and Broadway, showin...Image via WikipediaWhile economic cycles of boom and bust are nothing new, there is reason to think that the 2008 economic collapse was the result of a moral and ethical collapse in American life: from Washington (where regulators, according to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, failed to "stem the flow of toxic mortgages") to Wall Street (where firms pursued bottom-line profits by pushing dangerous securities) to Main Street (where millions of Americans took on unwise loans in pursuit of the good life).
So, how to rebuild a culture of virtue and civic duty? The problem did not begin with elected officials and government agencies,
 and it will not be solved by them. We must challenge the tyranny of relativism not only in theory but also in our daily lives, families, communities, and businesses. We must show that true happiness comes only from being rightly related to God, the source of truth and virtue.



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