A Sure Foundation

Morals are not just good ideas; they are founded in a perfect understanding of man’s nature. Moral character supports truth, family, human dignity and civilized community norms. George Washington said, “It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric” (George Washington, Farewell Address).

Universal principles in Divine Law are unchanging. When, in 1950, this writer was a soon-to-be soldier boy, President Harry S. Truman addressed the Attorney General’s Conference on Law Enforcement Problems. He emphasized the Common Law basis for our laws that have been in place since the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

President Truman said, “The most important business in this Nation or any other nation, for that matter is raising and training children. If those children have the proper environment at home, and educationally, very, very few of them ever turn out wrong. I don’t think we put enough stress on the necessity of implanting in the child’s mind the moral code under which we live. The fundamental basis of this Nation’s law was given to Moses on the Mount Sinai. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and Matthew, from Isaiah and Paul. If we don’t have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.”

So what is the problem with American public education? It is not a need for more schools. The problem is loss of the moral compass in education. I’m all about restoring education that has been central to American greatness.

~ D. Norris

Image Credit