Can Virtue Alone Save American Conservatism?

This July 4th, the United States will celebrate its 250th year as an independent nation.

The Founding Fathers established the U.S. on the foundation of the ideals they believed in. The Declaration of Independence famously says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …”

Here we see equality, justice and the knowledge of a creator being upheld and dignified.

We see similar themes in the Constitution. Its preamble reads: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Again, justice appears, as does peace, perfection and blessings.

All of these ideas are deeply intertwined with religious principles. And, this remains true despite the great variety of beliefs present among the founding fathers.

While some were certainly Christians, many were very skeptical of Christianity, and several others were deists (people who believe in a supreme creator who established the universe based on rational, natural laws — but does not intervene in human affairs or perform miracles).

But for the Founding Fathers, these were not principles that only religious people could respect; they were common virtues — ideas that all Americans ought to see as essential to a flourishing society.

But, while this virtue is baked into the very founding documents of our nation, what does its role look like in politics today?



To find out, I spoke with Stephanie Slade. Slade is a senior editor at “Reason” magazine and the author of an upcoming book, “Fusionism.”

In her book, Slade argues that the pursuit of virtue and liberty ought to be at the center of American policymaking. She also argues that there was a time when conservative politicians in particular exhibited this balance well, but that, today, lawmakers who openly fight for legislation that upholds both virtue and liberty are largely absent from the most powerful rooms in America.

You can listen to the Religion Unplugged podcast on Apple and Spotify.

Matthew Peterson is Religion Unplugged’s podcast editor and audience development coordinator. He took part in this past summer’s European Journalism Institute held in Prague, an annual program co-sponsored by The Media Project.