Public Virtue if the Ten Commandments are lost:
Christianity as the essential strength of America.

Pastor Joe Fuiten, July 3, 2005

In today’s message I would like to speak to the matter of public virtue. My thesis is that public virtue is necessary for our country to be successful. The Romans understood the necessity of public virtue and went to considerable effort to attain it. We rely upon the Bible and the Christian way to develop essential public virtue in our society. If we cut that virtue from public life, or undermine it excessively, we will lose cohesion as a culture and ultimately will lose God’s blessing.

The mixed decision regarding the Ten Commandments last week by the US Supreme Court is a perfect metaphor for the effort at diminishing religious faith in America by certain elites. Once again, it appears that judges are a big part of the problem and almost no part of the answer. They seem committed to holding up the “rule of law” except for actual laws passed by actual lawmakers. Beyond that they seem as committed to eliminating religious influence as public education.

We know what religious influence has created in America. What will happen if it is lost? My prediction is that the loss of religious influence in public life will be like shutting off the engine of a car that is already moving. Things will continue to go fine as long as it is downhill but will come to a halt when a hill is encountered. Rather than beginning with America, however, I would like to begin with the Roman understanding of public virtue.

We look to the Romans because they are the world’s most successful political system lasting over 2100 years from 753 BC to 1453 AD. Even today their ideas influence the entire world. The Roman Empire rested upon the practice of essential public virtues. They promoted these virtues in public statements and on their coins. They were the common values to which Romans aspired.

They had a system of private and public virtues to which respectable members of society adhered. A person’s place in society was determined by how well they displayed these virtues in their lives. As a very social society, a person’s status was determined by how much they contributed to the social and political good. Public virtue provided the glue for Rome. Such virtues allowed them to create the system we still admire today. In every way, through education, speeches, and the coins of Emperors, they promoted these virtues. Hadrian, who ruled Rome at its zenith, issued a series of coins with various public virtues on them to show that he was the ideal Roman citizen. Here are a few of these virtues for which I could also find a coin:

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Tranquillitas--Tranquility

Patientia—Patience, the ability to weather storms and crisis.

Liberalitas—Liberality and generous giving

Justitia—Justice meaning sensible laws and governance

Abundentia—Abundance. Enough food for all levels of society.

Aequitas-Fairness within government and among people.

Concordia—Harmony among the Romans and with other nations.

Fides—Good Faith in all commercial and governmental dealings

Genius—Spirit of Rome

Libertas--Freedom

Nobilitas—Nobility or noble action within the public sphere

Pietas—Dutifulness, particularly to the Roman gods, and later to God himself.

Providentia—Forethought. The ability of Roman society to survive trials and achieve a greater destiny.

Pudicitia—Modesty or chastity

Virtus—Courage, especially of leaders in government and society.

Gravitas—(No coin) "Gravity" A sense of the importance of the matter at hand, responsibility and earnestness.   (Something which, before 9/11, critics said George Bush lacked.)

When Christianity came along, it did not do away with these public virtues but rested them upon the Scriptures. Christianity has done well in promoting these and similar public virtues in America. I am suggesting that we have been the primary carriers of these values and to the extent we have done so successfully America has benefited.

If the liberals are successful in removing religious influence from public life under the guise of separation of church and state, they will have strayed miles from the Founder’s intent.

George Washington’s Farewell Address said it clearly. Of "all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens." He continued, "reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." There is no public virtue without religion!

Thomas Jefferson…wondered whether "the liberties of a nation [can] be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but by his wrath?"

President John Adams said "We have no government armed with power of contending with human passions unbridled by morality or religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

We have several problems to overcome. First, Christianity needs to reconnect to its public dimension. It has become a private faith alone. It has to be that but it must be much more. In the Gospel of St. Matthew Jesus teaches us: "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16) The public dimension needs to be reclaimed.

Second, we need to stop the revisionists who want to scrub away the history of Christianity in America. Snohomish High School has used a textbook for US History that makes no mention of Christianity or of anything religious in their entire telling of American history. They want to wipe out our past so it does make the present look so odd. America without Christianity and the Ten Commandments is odd.

Third, we need to stop those who think of the Constitution as a “living document.” By that they mean it is subject to change to fit the needs of modern life. A changing Constitution will do for America what a changing Bible will do for getting you to heaven—it will wreck your chances. The original Constitution is just fine, thank you very much. We don’t need liberal judges discovering new things in the Constitution.

Fourth, we need to build the church into such an effective ministry that it will naturally influence for the good. Everything we hope for in America depends on public virtue. Public virtue depends on strong preaching of the unchanging Word of God.