Daily Verse | 2 Chronicles 24:1
Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years.

It’s Friday and the end of the first full week of May. Spring is in the air but hasn’t landed yet.

One of my favorite quotes from our Founding Fathers is the one from John Adams that I referenced a couple of days ago. It is from a letter he wrote to the Massachusetts Militia on 11 October 1798. Below is the specific quotation in bold, situated in its paragraphical context.

While our Country remains untainted with the Principles and manners, which are now producing desolation in so many Parts of the World: while she continues Sincere and incapable of insidious and impious Policy: We shall have the Strongest Reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned Us by Providence. But should the People of America, once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another and towards foreign nations, which assumes the Language of Justice and moderation while it is practicing Iniquity and Extravagance; and displays in the most captivating manner the charming Pictures of Candour frankness & sincerity while it is rioting in rapine and Insolence: this Country will be the most miserable Habitation in the World. Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Galantry, 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.

This is a warning written by a man who was one of the central Founders of the United States form of government. Adams drafted the 1780 Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which served as a model for the United States Constitution. Adams and others made edits to the draft of the U.S. Constitution before it was adopted by the United States.

John Adams was intimately involved with and intimately familiar with the structure and purpose of the U.S. Constitution. So when he makes an observation about it, we should listen to him. And he has plenty to say in this letter that both acknowledges and addresses human nature.

To set up the final sentences that comprise the quote, he starts by saying that if our country “continues Sincere,” remaining “untainted” by (political) practices that produce desolation in other parts of the world, that we will be most happy with our local lot in life. But he warns that should we become good fakers (“deep simulation,” e.g. pretending) with ourselves and other nations while, in fact, we are “rioting in rapine [the violent seizure of another’s property] and Insolence [rude, disrespectful; contemptuously impertinent],” our Country will become “the most miserable Habitation in the World.”

In other words, if we talk a good game to ourselves and to our friends but, in truth, we’re a country full of selfishness and greed, we will be a miserable people.

The reason for this is that the government does not have enough power to deal with human passions that run wild and unchecked by “morality and Religion.” Therefore, he concludes, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Right there seems to be the crux of the problem in the United States. The Founders understood human nature and were willing to assume that where government left off, personal responsibility guided by Judeo-Christian teaching would fill the gaps.

And therein lies the problem. God is no longer central to our shared civic life together. We have retreated into separate sects, each claiming his right to do what the hell he wants and complaining when he can’t. God has been forced out of the public square and many people believe He should stay removed from our civil discussions.

In the vacuum left by God, however, the government steps in to guide your life and decides what is “good” and what is “bad.” In the United States, the government is trying to do what it was never meant to do: act as your conscience.

Have a good weekend.