To speak of America as exceptional is not to vaunt ourselves as better than other nations or peoples. Rather, it’s to celebrate and give rightful gratitude to founding principles that are inspired in their protection of sacred freedom.
In the inspired founding of our nation, the Founders pitted power against power, greed against greed, and religious morality against the both of them—and they warned that without religion, our freedom, peace, and prosperity would not endure.
Will admonitions to be kinder, nicer, more civil, and less hateful be enough to change our pained American discourse? Or have they become part of the problem?
Nietzsche once suggested Christianity is vulnerable to appropriation by lofty humanitarian aspirations. Are we falling into that tendency unawares?
