So, how to rebuild a culture of virtue and civic duty?
Image via Wikipedia Christians 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. Image via Wikipedia True 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...