10/26/25 – Public service announcement: You can’t fill a spiritual hole with material goods. You need spiritual goods. Jesus loves you. Go to church. Praise be to God. Happy Sunday!
10/26/25 – Some themes are emerging that shed light on the state of the American experiment, but first, we want Americans to fully absorb an important fact that is both a blessing and a curse – the world is watching us. From our founding almost 250 years ago until now, the world has been watching us to see if we can actually pull off self-governance. We know that we can.
We are an exceptional people, assembled from all over the world. We are a lens to see the full potential of people everywhere because we represent people from everywhere. We want our fellow Americans to know that we can do this. We can build a country worthy of ourselves and our ancestors. We will never stop believing in this country’s promise. We want you to believe in it like you believe in God or the rising and the setting of the sun.
For the American experiment in self-governance to succeed, we have to believe in it and want its success like we want our children’s or family’s success. After all, our country is a set of ideas worth fighting for; it’s also a nation; it’s also a family. We are creed, country and compatriots, and we will rise and fall together. Anybody who tries to divide us will ultimately fail or the nation will fail as a whole because they don’t understand the nature of the American experiment.
Lincoln, a Republican, understood it better than any other leader after our founding, and he moved forward in faith with a conviction about how our house would stand and how it might fall. His vision prevailed, at least for now. To those who pine for the days when some within our republic were treated as second-class citizens or worse, we have this to say.
A nation cannot stand leave alone thrive when individuals’ realization of their talent is artificially suppressed. A country at its best is composed of people who are confident in themselves and what they contribute to their family, to their nation, and to the world. They do not look around comparing and conspiring for their fellow countrymen’s diminishment or downfall. After all, those people are part of our country’s greatest collective wealth – our human talent. No one person can do or be everything. We rely on each other to share our God-given gifts, on our intellectual and material generosity.
As our nation has become wealthier, we have become enticed, as so often is the case, by material trappings. This orientation, amplified by technological changes that encourage narcissism and self-centeredness, has changed the way people estimate their own self-worth and others’ value. Inherent in every human being is the spark of the divine. We are God’s children, and therefore, we all have value to our creator in our mere existence as his creation.
As a people who collectively determine our nation’s success, see in each other this inherent worth as God would see us. Set aside partisan politics and return to the fundamentals of a universal, everlasting creed articulated in our founding documents – we are created equal. God created all of us as equal to each other in our inherent worth as children of God. It is therefore pointless to engage in unhealthy comparisons. It is also unhealthy to lord over others the blessings that our creator has given us. Instead, we are called to use our talents to lift up others, our country, and our world.
We all like our material comforts, but why and to what degree are you pursuing them? Is it to feel better about yourself and to diminish others by comparison? Instead of using materialism to fill a psychological black hole, we need to do the work of reorientating our own self-love to God’s love for us, which is conditional on nothing. He loves us not because we earn it but because we are his. If we can love others simply because they belong to God, we will understand true wealth, and we will become a nation that has realized the promise and the brilliance of its founding documents. We will be a city on a hill.
10/19/25 – The Atlantic has a timely and wonderful series called The Unfinished Revolution. It is probably the only publication that could do this series justice, which says something about it and the state of the media. There are different stories within the series, but one thing that is striking among them is the perseverance of our Founding Fathers. From a Christian perspective, this is also a recurring theme. Saint Paul routinely provides the nascent church with encouragement. It is a community that suffers together and supports each other. Our republic was created against long odds, and it has withstood tremendous challenges from within and without. The key to our relative longevity has been our ability to persevere and unite when it mattered. We also don’t have a single founding father. We have several of them, some with strong disagreements, such as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
As our 250th anniversary approaches, there is no better time for it to be celebrated. We are at a fitting crossroads. The challenge is before us. Who are we, America? Can we persevere as one country, suffering together and supporting each other, or will our disunity break us and our democracy? This significant anniversary, a quarter of a millennium, wouldn’t have meant as much if it were all apple cider and roses. Our democracy is in distress, and the anniversary is poignant because we are under strain. May the Founding Fathers look down from heaven, see our No Kings rallies, be proud of us and bless us. May we never relinquish this democracy that they founded to anyone. May we never allow their work and their genius to be destroyed. Let us live up to their legacy. Let us continue the revolution the only way we know how, the America way. May God bless America and protect our democracy.
10/12/25 – Holiness is happiness. It might sound strange, but when you’re in the company of truly holy people, which is not necessarily the same thing as being a religious person or part of the clergy, but in an actual state of holiness, you will feel their happiness. Brooks’s guide, family, friends, work, and faith, is helpful. Another approach is to seek holiness instead of happiness. With this approach, happiness would be the feeling that is the fruit of holiness. Aim to live a life that is devoted to and serves God in all respects. Be holy. Be happy.
Why are Catholics so Happy?
10/12/25 – Pass the bill. “The world tends not to pay much attention to the persecution of Christians, even though Christians are attacked and repressed in more countries than any other religious group. But sometimes the persecution is so extreme that it gains, at least briefly, some purchase on public attention. The steady slaughter of Christians in the West African nation of Nigeria is one such case. In recent weeks, the violence has prompted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to introduce legislation holding accountable Nigerian officials who facilitate Islamist jihadist attacks on Christians, and HBO talk-show host Bill Maher excoriated the news media and others for largely ignoring the bloody persecution of Christians.” That’s because western media is filled with bigots who hate Christians.
At last, the world is noticing the persecution of Christians
10/5/25 – The west is lost, but, as Christians, we have the grace that gives us hope. From the beginning of the faith, Christianity has been a countercultural movement. David French of The New York Times writes about the L.D.S. Church and Erika Kirk and the practice of Christian forgiveness and charity. If we act like everybody else, then where are the fruits of the faith? They didn’t do this to prove to the world that the Christian way of life is different. They did it because that’s what the faith asks of us. It is hard, and we might not always be able to live up to its demands, but we know what we’re supposed to do. What are people doing online right now? Is it helpful to our country and our communities? Is it helpful to ourselves? If you’re more interested in “defeating your political opponents” than in living the faith correctly, you’re lost as a Christian. Get found, and find the grace that gives us hope.
The Grace That Gives Us Hope