European soccer fans raving about their American experience have filled social media during this World Cup.
As we celebrate our 250th Independence Day, it’s a shot in Uncle Sam’s arm to be reminded that so many from around the globe still fall in love with our nation.
While this reveals the snippets of America’s popularity—from the sandwich at Chick-fil-A to the bakery at Buc-ee's—the origins of our greatness lie elsewhere.
America’s success took root centuries before Facebook as pilgrims, pioneers, and settlers—motivated by a strong Christian faith—crossed waters and climbed mountains to lay the foundations of what we see today.
About 60 years after our founding, Alexis de Tocqueville published his "Democracy in America" to explain the underlying cultural causes of the vibrancy of the modern world’s first large republic.
He famously wrote about the role Christian faith played in early America that “while it does not directly involve itself in government, it facilitates the use of political freedom by providing a moral compass that restrains citizens from acting in a rash, unjust, or tyrannical manner.”
This faith produced a people where early observers universally recognized our sound morals. It was modeled and replicated in American marriage.
Tocqueville saw American marriage as being healthier and happier than its expression in Europe, where it was more often based on financial interest, family alliance, or chance.
“When the American retires from the turmoil of public life to the bosom of his family, he finds in it the image of order and of peace,” he wrote.
Along with World Cup phenomena and 250 celebrations, our big anniversary should also bring sober reflection. The source of America’s greatness has always been our Christian faith and our married families. Our self-governing republic is utterly dependent on both.
These cultural headwaters have weakened considerably. Too often, our elites dismiss both Christian faith and marriage. Even acknowledging Christianity's historic role in shaping America is frequently met with accusations of "Christian nationalism," shutting down a conversation we desperately need.
In his letter to the Massachusetts Militia in 1798, President John Adams wrote that as long as “our country remains untainted with the principles and manners, which are now producing desolation in so many parts of the world … we shall have the strongest reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned to us by providence.”
Adams was referring to the chaos of the French Revolution, where the Great Terror had unleashed widespread bloodshed and upended the nation's political, religious, and social order. It was against that backdrop that he penned one of his most famous warnings:
“We have no Government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Unsurprisingly, as liberty’s headwaters have slowed, American government has grown, and our freedoms have receded.
As we celebrate a quarter of a millennium, we must recognize our success depends mightily on the restoration of these headwaters. Policy can do some of the work around encouraging marriage and family life. The head magistrate, as he has done many times in our history, can call for times of prayer, fasting, and thanksgiving.
But the great majority of the work toward such restoration must come through a converted elite and a converted people. We must recognize that the loss of our founding values is the cause of our epidemic of loneliness, the mental health crisis, our falling happiness, growing feelings of meaninglessness, and our shrinking life spans.
The great responsibility of restoration falls largest on the local church and its evangelists. America has more than 100,000 churches with more than 100 people and 25,000 with more than 500 in weekly attendance. These must be the cultural channels for social and cultural transformation.
Communio—the ministry I founded to equip churches to strengthen families—recently collaborated with The Institute for Family Studies and produced a study, gathering data from 60,000 Americans. The study showed the family we grow up in remains the single most important factor in whether faith continues into adulthood.
The report showed adults were more likely to have an active Christian faith if they were raised in a home by parents with a healthy marriage. When kids see that their parents’ faith isn’t just a box-ticking Sunday morning chore but is real and sincere and rooted in prayer, they are the ones who continue that commitment when they’re adults.
The state of our nation is directly tied to the health of the Christian married home, but we have found that 85 percent of all churches spend nothing in the area of marriage ministry.
As we turn 250, eliminating this gap is our biggest cultural opportunity. One generation of Christian marriage well-lived will transform the nation.
Doing that should be a far bigger goal than any growth in European affection or even an American World Cup victory.
J.P. De Gance is the founder and president of Communio, a nonprofit ministry that trains and equips churches, focusing on the renewal of healthy relationships, marriages, and the family. He is the co-author of "Endgame: The Church’s Strategic Move to Save Faith and Family in America."
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