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Faith and Family blog
A thought experiment where a federal agency replaces every church charity A labelled satire of a Department of Neighborliness shows what a federal program can supply and what only a congregation can. Old Glory's Rules, What the Flag Code Says and Why Most of Us Break It The Flag Code tells Americans how to display and honour the flag. Its history, its main rules, and why it carries no penalties. The Sabbath is the oldest labor protection on record, so why do we mock it? The commandment to rest, extended even to servants, strangers and animals, is the first weekly limit on work, and a free people should prize it. William and Catherine Booth, the Salvation Army and soup, soap and salvation A Methodist preacher and his wife built a charity run like an army, and it reached America in 1880 and proved that faith can feed millions without Washington. A Thought Experiment, the Town That Handed Every Kindness to a Federal Office A labelled satire in which a made-up town replaces neighborly kindness with a Department of Kindness, and the forms outnumber the friends. Before the welfare state, Americans insured each other through lodges Fraternal societies gave working families sickness, burial and life benefits with no government at all, until the welfare state crowded them out. How to Give Well, a Family Playbook for Charity That Actually Helps A step-by-step family plan for giving that does real good: set a budget, vet a charity, read a Form 990, give locally and avoid scams. Why a church charity knows things a federal program never will Private charity beats government relief where it counts: it knows the person, asks something of him and outlasts any grant cycle. A fair division of labor. Know Your Neighbors' Names, the Small Habit That Holds a Republic Together Self-government starts on your street, because neighbors who know and help one another need far less from the state. Size, development, location, dependency, the four tests that exclude no one Every difference between an unborn child and a newborn falls into four categories, and none decides a human being's worth. The case and the best reply. The famous violinist argument for abortion, and why it never fit the case Judith Jarvis Thomson's 1971 violinist is the best bodily-autonomy argument for abortion, and it fails on its own terms. Here is the argument and the replies. Fathers are not optional, and the culture that says they are is wrong Television mocked fathers and welfare rules pushed them out of the house. The record shows what father absence costs, and what men and communities can do. Can a conservative who doesn't believe still defend the faith of the West? Non-believing conservatives have strong reasons to defend the Judeo-Christian inheritance, and believers should welcome them as allies. Jerusalem and Athens, the two cities every free society still lives in Western liberty rests on biblical moral law and Greek reason, and either alone falls short. The argument, the strongest objection, and the conservative answer. Galileo, Mendel and a Belgian priest, the myth of faith at war with science The idea that religion and science have always fought is a nineteenth-century story more than a fact, and the record shows a different picture. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the church that would not bow to the Reich A Lutheran pastor opposed Nazism from 1933 and was hanged in April 1945, and his life shows what faithful resistance asks of believers. Loving your country is not idolatry, a believer's case for patriotism Christians and Jews can love their country without worshiping it, and Scripture commands care for one's city; here is where patriotism ends and idolatry begins. Washington's 1789 and Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving proclamations side by side Two presidents, seventy-four years apart, called a nation to thank God, one at the founding and one in civil war, and their words still teach gratitude. Why newsrooms cover believers like a tribe they have never met Coverage often treats religious Americans as a bloc to be explained, not people with reasons, and fair coverage is not hard to describe. How a small church can put its beliefs on paper before it is ever sued A step-by-step guide for congregations to document beliefs and policies now, because courts weigh what a church wrote down before the dispute began. Work as a Calling, What Scripture and the Reformers Said About an Ordinary Job The idea that a plumber's or a clerk's work can be holy service is a great inheritance of the West and a quiet source of the American work ethic. What Jewish and Christian teaching says about defending your own life The Judeo-Christian tradition holds that defending the innocent, yourself included, is permitted and sometimes a duty. That is older than any statute on arms. Made in God's Image, the Idea Behind Every Claim to Human Dignity Genesis 1:27 gave the West its belief that every person has equal worth no ruler grants or removes. Here is the argument, and why secular rivals fall short. Chuck Colson Went From Watergate to Prison to a Ministry Behind Bars Charles Colson served time for a Watergate-era crime, then spent his life arguing that prisoners are redeemable and responsible, and that both halves matter. Desmond Doss Refused to Carry a Rifle and Saved About 75 Men on Okinawa A Seventh-day Adventist medic who would not carry a weapon became the first conscientious objector to earn the Medal of Honor. C. S. Lewis Warned About Men Without Chests in a Book About Schoolbooks Lewis's 1943 lectures began with a dull English textbook and ended with a defense of objective moral values that every school still needs. Sergeant York Captured 132 Germans in the Argonne and Went Home to Tennessee Alvin York asked the Army to excuse him from killing, was refused, ended a machine-gun ambush on October 8, 1918, then turned down fame and built a school. Solzhenitsyn's Line Through Every Human Heart Is Where Conservatism Starts A prisoner of the Soviet camps found that evil does not sort people by class or party, and that finding is the root of the conservative distrust of utopias. Missouri's 1838 extermination order and what Latter-day Saints endured Missouri's governor ordered Mormons driven out or exterminated in 1838, and the order stayed on the books until 1976, a lesson in liberty for unpopular faiths. Chesterton Called Tradition the Democracy of the Dead, and He Was Right Chesterton's line in Orthodoxy gives our ancestors a vote against the oligarchy of the living, and it survives the objection that the dead were wrong too. Pulpits, boycotts and the church roots of the civil rights movement The civil rights movement was organized in churches and argued in Scripture and the Declaration, and conservatives have good reason to honor that inheritance. The 1688 Germantown protest and the believers who started abolition Four Quakers wrote the first colonial protest against slavery in 1688, and the religious argument they began ran straight to the Thirteenth Amendment. The Boston sermon of 1750 that taught colonists when to resist a king Jonathan Mayhew's 1750 sermon read Romans 13 as a limit on rulers, and a generation of colonial pulpits carried that reading into 1776. The Underground Railroad and the Quakers Who Broke an Unjust Law in the Open The conductors of the Underground Railroad show when conscience may defy a law and how to do it openly, accepting the cost. Six principles, one fair objection. Pharaoh, the Red Sea and the Great Seal design Franklin and Jefferson wanted In 1776 Franklin and Jefferson proposed Exodus scenes for the national seal. The story shows why a tale of liberation fits America. Thomas Paine, a deist, argued for independence from the Book of Samuel Common Sense made its case against monarchy from Gideon and Samuel, and the choice of sources shows how biblical the language of American liberty was. Seven Christmas claims about the public square, checked against the law Most of what people believe about Christmas being banned from or required in public life is wrong in both directions. Seven claims, tested. The Cold War cathedral case where the Court sided with Moscow's archbishop Kedroff (1952) struck down a New York law that took a cathedral from Moscow's archbishop. A state may not decide who governs a church, even an unpopular one. Subsidiarity, the 1931 Catholic principle every federalist should know Pius XI's rule that a larger body must not take over what a smaller one can do is the moral twin of the Tenth Amendment, read passage by passage. John Paul II's 1991 Encyclical Weighed Capitalism After Communism Fell Centesimus Annus asked whether capitalism won in 1989 and answered with a careful yes, with conditions. Read sections 42 and 48 and see why they matter. Pius XI Put Subsidiarity in Writing in 1931, and Washington Should Read It Paragraph 79 of Quadragesimo Anno says a larger body wrongs a smaller one when it takes over what the smaller can do, the logic of the Tenth Amendment. Bible riots, Know-Nothings and the amendment named for James G. Blaine Nineteenth-century anti-Catholic politics left state "no aid" clauses that still block religious families from school choice, and the history explains why. Wisconsin told Catholic Charities it was not religious enough and lost 9-0 In 2025 the Court held 9-0 that a state may not exempt only religious groups that preach to or serve their own. A fair look at the ruling and what it means. 'Religious liberty is a license to discriminate,' answered with the law Religious-liberty law weighs the interests of third parties and has rejected many claims, so the slogan about a license to discriminate fails on the record. Massachusetts kept a state church until 1833, and the Constitution let it The First Amendment bound only Congress in 1791, so states kept established churches for decades, and that history frames every Establishment Clause fight. Rights Are Not Social Constructs, and Here Is the Answer to That Claim Bentham called natural rights nonsense on stilts. The positivist case at its best, then four answers: the Declaration, Nuremberg, the abolitionists, the stakes. A thought experiment where the IRS fact-checks every Sunday sermon A labelled satire of a federal sermon-review office, anchored in the real Johnson Amendment, to show why government must never police the pulpit. James Wilson Lectured on Natural Law While Washington Was President A signer of both founding documents and an original justice told America where law comes from, with the President reportedly in the room. He was right. The Pledge of Allegiance From 1892 to Under God, and the Fights Along the Way The Pledge began as a magazine's school celebration in 1892 and changed several times. Each change, from 1923 to 1954 to Newdow, tells a story. Sunday closing laws, Orthodox Jewish merchants and the 1961 Sabbath rulings In 1961 the Court held Sunday closing laws secular rest laws even as they burdened Sabbath-observant Jews, and the cases still teach how pluralism works. Self-Government Starts With Governing Yourself, the Founders Insisted The Founders held that a republic needs citizens who can restrain themselves, and that virtue was a political necessity. They were no secular rationalists. No Law Respecting an Establishment Meant Something Specific in 1791 In 1791 an establishment meant a state church with taxes, doctrine and privileges. The clause barred Congress from making one, not faith from public life. The Four Chaplains Gave Away Their Life Jackets When the Dorchester Went Down Four chaplains of four faiths gave their life jackets to frightened soldiers and went down praying together, and the country honored them with a medal. Whittaker Chambers Told Americans the Cold War Was a Contest of Faiths A former Soviet agent testified against Alger Hiss, then wrote Witness to argue that communism was a rival religion, man without God. Should pastors endorse candidates? The Johnson Amendment fight, argued fairly A 1954 floor amendment gagged churches on campaigns, and conservatives split over repeal; here is the free-speech case, the pulpit case, and a verdict. Reconstruction's Promise and the Freedmen Who Built Schools, Churches and Towns Freed people built schools, churches and self-governing towns at astonishing speed after 1865, and that promise deserves as much attention as its betrayal. When Ratifying Conventions Argued Over Article VI's Ban on Religious Tests In 1788 devout delegates feared a Constitution with no religious test. Other believers defended the ban as a shield for faith, and they won the argument. Why 'created equal' is a claim about God and not just about politics The Declaration grounds equality in a Creator, which puts rights beyond any government's power to revoke. The text, Aristotle, Lincoln and the objection. What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July and Why Douglass Kept the Constitution Douglass's Rochester speech of July 5, 1852 indicts slavery without mercy, then calls the Constitution a glorious liberty document. Read it closely. Harriet Tubman Led Rescues, Spied for the Union and Raided the Combahee River She escaped slavery, went back for about seventy people, scouted for the Union and helped free more than 700 on the Combahee River. Why Washington's Farewell Address called religion and morality indispensable Washington's 1796 warning that free government cannot last without religion and morality, read passage by passage, and what it means now. From a Civil War coin to the Pledge, how 'under God' entered public life Two national mottoes arrived in two eras of danger, the Civil War and the Cold War, and the dates explain why they were added and why they still divide us. Self-Interest Rightly Understood Was Tocqueville's Answer to Selfishness Tocqueville found Americans who taught that serving neighbors serves oneself, a modest doctrine that built a remarkably public-spirited people. A town board, a guest chaplain and why opening prayers survived the Court Town of Greece v. Galloway (2014) upheld prayers before town meetings because legislative prayer is as old as the Republic. The history settles the case. Casinos open, churches capped, and the pandemic rulings that restored worship In 2020 and 2021 the Court went from deferring to worship caps to striking them, ending in a rule: no worse treatment than comparable secular activity. Ordered Liberty Is Not a Contradiction, It Is the Only Kind That Lasts Liberty without order collapses into license and then tyranny, so conservatives defend freedom and the habits and institutions that keep it alive. From Cicero to Aquinas to Jefferson, the Long Road of Natural Law The idea that a moral law binds rulers and can be known by reason runs unbroken from the Stoics to the Declaration and the Birmingham jail. A Santeria church, a Florida city and the unanimous ruling for minority faiths Lukumi (1993) shows that a law aimed at one faith fails even under Smith. Conservatives who value religious liberty should cheer it, and here is why. Sixteen words on religion in the First Amendment, read phrase by phrase Two guarantees, not one, and nearly every word was fought over in 1789. A close reading of the religion clauses and the myth that they are at war. 1915, the Armenian genocide and the Christian peoples who perished with them The Ottoman campaign that began in 1915 destroyed Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Christian communities, and America took a century to name it. How China's Communist Party licenses churches and jails pastors China guarantees belief on paper, runs worship through state-controlled bodies and punishes believers outside them, from Christians to Falun Gong. The 2016 genocide finding for Yazidis and Christians under ISIS rule In March 2016 the United States formally declared that ISIS was committing genocide against Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims, and the record shows why. The 1998 law that put religious persecution on America's foreign agenda The International Religious Freedom Act created a commission, an ambassador and an annual report so that persecution abroad would stay on the official record. Your First Year of Homeschooling, a Practical Playbook for Parents A step-by-step plan for the first year: find your state's legal category, withdraw properly, pick a curriculum, keep records, test and plan for transcripts. How to Find an Ancestor Who Served in an American War Using Public Records Seven steps to trace a family member's military service through draft cards, the National Archives, the VA gravesite locator and ABMC, then write it down. How to Mark America's 250th Birthday in Your Own Town and With Your Own Family Six steps for any family: read the Declaration aloud, find a local Revolutionary veteran, visit a park site, interview a vet, fly the flag right, ask your town. Ten questions families ask about adopting a child from another country Ten plain answers on treaty and federal rules for intercountry adoption, from the Hague Convention and visas to closed countries, costs and citizenship. It's a Wonderful Life Is the Most Conservative Film Hollywood Ever Made Capra's 1946 classic celebrates family, thrift, faith and local institutions, and its villain wants to own everything. It is the conservative Christmas film. A Family Phone Plan That Puts Dinner, Sleep and Sunday Back on the Calendar Families can reclaim time from screens with a few written rules everyone follows, parents included, in seven plain steps. From Father Knows Best to the Bumbling Sitcom Dad, What TV Taught About Fathers Television's dads went from wise heads of the house to the family punchline, and the culture followed the laugh track. Respect for fathers is a choice. Thanksgiving Proclamations of 1789 and 1863, Read as Lessons in Gratitude Washington in 1789 and Lincoln in 1863 asked a divided people to give thanks. Both texts read closely, and why gratitude is a civic habit. Healthy Habits Are a Matter of Character, Not a Government Program A free people builds good habits in families and churches and clubs, not in federal agencies, and the oldest moral tradition in the West says why. A Family Playbook for a Childhood With Fewer Screens and More Freedom One family saying no to a smartphone is hard, but families saying it together change a classroom. Here are the steps, in order. Free-Range Kids and the Law, Why Letting Children Roam Became Suspect Letting a child walk to the park used to be normal; vague neglect laws made it risky until states rewrote them. Here is how, and why it matters. The equalizer, why a firearm matters most to the smallest person in the room A firearm narrows the strength gap between attacker and victim, so the right to arms is a right of women and the vulnerable, with its duties stated. The McGuffey Readers Taught Reading and Virtue to Millions of Americans For a century the McGuffey Readers taught children to read through stories of honesty, work and courage, and the country lost something when they faded. Seven Myths About Homeschooled Kids, From Socialization to College Seven stock objections to homeschooling, tested against the legal and documentary record, and why they keep coming back anyway. Levittown Built a Nation of Homeowners, and Ownership Built Citizens Levittown turned renters into owners with assembly-line homes and GI Bill loans. Its exclusion of Black buyers was wrong, and the case for ownership stands. The Case for Honoring Motherhood Without Telling Any Woman What She Must Do A culture that praises every ambition but raising children has its priorities backward, and honoring mothers limits no woman's choices. What It Means to Be a Man, Argued From Duty Rather Than From Bravado Manhood is best defined by responsibility, protecting, providing, keeping your word and serving others, not by swagger and not by apology. Is Your Child Being Taught to Read With Phonics? A Parent's Checklist A parent can learn in one afternoon whether a school teaches systematic phonics or leans on guessing, and what to do if it does not. Ten steps. Teaching Kids About Money, a Plan From the Piggy Bank to the First Paycheck A stage-by-stage family plan for teaching children to save, give and spend, from three jars at age five to a first paycheck and a first account. Chores, Thank-You Notes and the Lost Art of Raising Grateful Children Real work and a habit of saying thanks teach children that nothing is owed to them, and that is the best gift a home can give. Robert Nisbet Saw Lonely People Turn to the State for Belonging Nisbet's 1953 book argued that when family, church and town weaken, people seek belonging in the central state. What that implies about loneliness now. Marriage and Money, Why One Household Budget Beats Two Separate Ledgers A marriage is one household, so a joint budget is a moral choice before a bookkeeping one; the premises, a worked couple and the best objection answered. Eight myths that keep good families from adopting a child Cost, age, income and birth parents are the reasons families give for not adopting, and most rest on myths. Here are eight, tested against the record. Baby Moses laws, from one Texas statute in 1999 to all fifty states Safe haven laws let a parent in crisis leave a newborn with a hospital or fire station, and they spread from Texas to every state with votes from both parties. Baby bonuses, tax credits or cheaper houses, comparing pro-family policies Six conservative tools to help families form, rated for cost, work incentives and federalism, with both sides of the fight over cash payments. A falling birth rate is a conservative problem, not a culture-war slogan Fertility has sat below replacement for years, straining entitlements and signaling that families are harder to start. Where conservatives split, and why. California's 1969 no-fault divorce law and the revolution that followed Governor Reagan signed the law that ended fault divorce in California, and every state followed. The history, and the conservative fight over repeal or reform. Every Totalitarian Regime Went After the Family First, and Not by Accident From the Jacobins to the Bolsheviks to Mao, revolutionary states weakened the family because it is a loyalty they do not control. The family checks power. 'The success sequence is just correlation,' answered point by point Critics say finishing school, working and marrying before children only describes privilege. The evidence says more than that, and the objection has answers. The marriage penalty buried in welfare programs, with the math shown Means-tested programs can make marriage cost a low-income couple thousands of dollars a year. Here is the arithmetic, program by program, and the fixes. The family came before the state, so why does the state act like a parent? The family is prior to government in time and in rights, so policy should start there, while answering the case for protecting children from bad parents. What Obergefell said to religious believers, and what it left open Obergefell v. Hodges promised religious people could keep teaching their view of marriage, and the decade since tested how far that promise reaches. Every School Teaches Morals, the Only Question Is Which Ones No school is morally neutral, because rules on honesty and cheating are moral teaching. The real question is which virtues, taught on what foundation. The Trivium Explained, Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric for a Modern Child Classical education is a sequence matched to how children learn: facts first, then argument, then persuasion. Here is what it is and how to judge a school. The Little Platoons Passage From 1790 and What It Asks of Us Now One sentence in Burke's Reflections makes family, parish, town and club the first schools of public affection, and France showed what follows when they go. How to testify at your statehouse when an assisted-suicide bill is heard A step-by-step guide to finding the bill, signing up, writing a three-minute statement, meeting staff and following the vote, with no medical claims. Why Single-Issue Voters Hold a Coalition Together, and When They Break It Pro-life voters, gun owners and taxpayers each joined the right over one provocation; here is how they got in, why they matter, and what keeps them. The case against assisted suicide that does not depend on religion Legal assisted suicide pressures the vulnerable, and that holds without faith. Autonomy at its strongest, then the enacted laws of Oregon, Canada and the Dutch. Washington v. Glucksberg and the 9-0 refusal to find a right to assisted suicide In Glucksberg (1997) every justice rejected a constitutional right to assisted suicide, and its history test later shaped Dobbs. The facts and what followed. 'My body, my choice' is a slogan, so let's take it seriously for once The slogan assumes the answer to the one question in dispute: whether a second human body is involved. Its history, its best argument and its limits. Fifty years from Roe to Dobbs in twenty dated turns of the law Twenty dated turns of the law between Roe in 1973 and Dobbs in 2022, each with a line on why it moved the ground under both movements. The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002 and what the law requires A 2002 federal law says an infant born alive at any stage is a person. What the statute says, how it passed, and why the later fight is over enforcement. California told pro-life pregnancy centers what to say, and the Court said no NIFLA v. Becerra (2018) struck California's forced notices for pregnancy centers as compelled speech. The facts, the opinions, and why it protects all sides. After Dobbs, should pro-lifers seek a national law or win state by state? Pro-life conservatives disagree about federal protection versus state action after Dobbs. Both sides get a fair hearing here, then a verdict. From Bracton to 1868, the legal history Dobbs put back on the record Dobbs rests on a historical finding about abortion at common law and in the states of 1868. The authorities, the statutes, Roe's account and the dissent. Dred Scott, Roe and the danger of a Court deciding who counts as a person Twice the Supreme Court drew a line around who counts under the Constitution, and the people undid it. The history, and the honest limits of the comparison. Dobbs v. Jackson Read Closely, From Alito's History to the Joint Dissent A close reading of Dobbs, the Mississippi law behind it, the history test it used, its five-factor case for overruling Roe, and the best of the dissent. Roe v. Wade Was Weak Law Even to Scholars Who Liked the Result The first serious legal critics of Roe supported legal abortion, which shows that the objection was about constitutional method, not politics. What Caused the Civil War, Who Won It and Why, Answered From the Record Twelve plain questions about the Civil War answered from the record, from the secession declarations to Appomattox, the dead and what Emancipation did. If the Constitution Were Rewritten as a Software License Agreement A labelled satire recasts the Bill of Rights as terms of service the provider may update at any time, to show why secured rights beat granted ones. Gratitude Is a Conservative Virtue, and Ingratitude Fuels Every Revolution A conservative starts from thanks for an inheritance he did not earn, a revolutionary from grievance, and the two moods build two different kinds of politics. English as a Common Language Is a Gift to Newcomers, Not a Barrier A shared language is the precondition of a shared public life, and expecting English helps immigrants rise instead of holding them back. How to Judge the Founders Fairly Without Excusing Slavery or Erasing Them Many Founders held slaves and also wrote the principles that ended slavery; a numbered argument for holding both truths and answering the charge of hypocrisy. The Constitution Is Not Illegitimate Because Its Framers Held Slaves Many Framers held slaves. The abolitionists, Lincoln and the civil rights movement used their Constitution to end slavery and segregation anyway. Frederick Douglass's Plea for Free Speech in Boston, Read Passage by Passage A mob broke up an abolitionist meeting in Boston in 1860, and Douglass answered with the best defence of free speech in the language. The Founders Were Not Just Rich Men Protecting Their Property Charles Beard said the Constitution was written to protect the Framers' bonds. Later historians checked his ledger, and it did not balance. Tocqueville Saw It in 1831, Comebacks Are Built in Associations, Not Ads A French visitor found that Americans solve public problems by forming groups, and the durable conservative comebacks were built the same way. The Cherry Tree, the Flat Earth and Other History Myths Traced to Their Source Eight famous American stories that never happened as told, each traced to the person who made it up, with a verdict, because the true record needs no help. How to Host a Constitution Day Reading in Your Town on September 17 Any citizen can organize a public reading of the Constitution on September 17. Here is the plan, step by step, from venue to readers to follow-up. America at 250 and What the Centennial and the Bicentennial Can Teach Us Philadelphia in 1876, Operation Sail in 1976 and the 250th commission of 2016 compared, with a plain argument about what an anniversary ought to teach. Constitution Day and How Americans Marked the Charter's Great Anniversaries From the 1887 centennial to the 1987 bicentennial and the 2004 law on schools, how each anniversary of the Constitution showed what Americans thought of it. Seven Myths About Veterans That Shape Bad Policy, and the Facts Hollywood treats veterans as broken or as charity cases, but the record shows productive citizens with real, specific needs, and bad myths make bad policy. Tear Down This Wall Read Closely as the Speech Diplomats Tried to Soften Reagan's 1987 Brandenburg Gate speech read passage by passage, with the drafting history, the objections to its central line and how it read after 1989. Talking Politics With a Neighbor Who Disagrees, a Persuasion Playbook Most persuasion happens between people who know each other. Seven plain steps for talking politics with a neighbor, with labelled examples. Barnette's Fixed Star, Reading the 1943 Opinion on the Pledge Passage by Passage Justice Jackson's 1943 Flag Day opinion in Barnette explains why a free country does not compel patriotism. Its key passages, read closely. Texas v. Johnson Protected Flag Burning, and Conservatives Still Argue It The 5-4 flag-burning ruling of 1989 split conservative justices and still splits conservatives. Both positions get a fair hearing before one is argued. Lincoln's Electric Cord and the Case for a Civic Nation Anyone Can Join America is a creedal nation. Lincoln's electric cord shows how newcomers become fully American, and why assimilation is both possible and required. Why We Play the Anthem Before Games, From the 1918 World Series On The anthem at the ballpark began in a wartime World Series in 1918. The history explains why the ritual is worth keeping, and worth explaining to children. Country Music Still Sings About Work, Faith and Flag, and It Is No Accident Country is the popular genre whose mainstream still celebrates work, faith, family and country, because its audience lives those things. Seven Myths About the Declaration of Independence, Checked Against the Record Seven things Americans learn about the Declaration, from the July 4 signing to the Liberty Bell to its secularism, tested against the documents. When Hollywood Enlisted, the Studios and Stars Who Went to War in 1942 After Pearl Harbor the film industry put stars in uniform and studios to work for the war, a model of patriotic culture that today's industry could learn from. July 2, July 4, August 2, the Dates Behind the Declaration of Independence Independence was voted July 2, the text adopted July 4 and most signatures added August 2. A dated timeline of how it happened and why each step mattered. The Grievance List in the Declaration Reads Like a Charge Sheet Against Power The skipped middle of the Declaration is a catalogue of abuses, and nearly every charge became a clause of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. The Declaration's Second Paragraph Is a Complete Theory of Government In about two hundred words the Declaration says where rights come from, why governments exist, who gives them power and when the people may change them. Irving Berlin Came Through Ellis Island and Wrote God Bless America A boy who arrived from Russia in 1893 became America's great songwriter, gave the country an unofficial anthem, and gave the royalties to the Scouts. The Statue of Liberty Was Built on a Pedestal Paid for by Small Donors France gave the statue, but Americans had to build the base, and more than 120,000 small donors answered a newspaper campaign to finish it in 1886. Franklin's Closing Speech Asked Delegates to Doubt Themselves and Sign Anyway On September 17, 1787, an 81-year-old Franklin asked the delegates to doubt their own infallibility and sign. Read his words closely, line by line. Madison Kept the Idea of Property in Men Out of the Constitution's Words The Framers bargained with slavery but refused to name it, and that refusal handed abolitionists a Constitution they could stand on. The Three-Fifths Clause Limited Slaveholder Power and Measured No One's Worth The clause was about counting seats, not weighing souls. The slaveholders wanted their slaves counted in full, and the clause stopped them. The conscience clause Madison wrote for the Bill of Rights and lost Madison's 1789 draft of the Second Amendment spared the religiously scrupulous from bearing arms; the clause was cut, and conscience was left to statute. George Mason and the well regulated militia composed of the body of the people Mason wrote Virginia's Declaration of Rights, defined the militia as the body of the people, and refused to sign the Constitution until it had a bill of rights. The Powder Alarm and the British arms embargo that came before Lexington Gage's powder seizure and the Crown's 1774 embargo taught Americans that disarmament comes first. That, as much as April 1775, shaped the Second Amendment. Appomattox and the Generous Surrender Terms That Began to Heal a Nation Grant's terms at Appomattox ended a war without starting a feud, and they show what magnanimity in victory can and cannot do. The Gettysburg Address Read Closely Sentence by Sentence Ten sentences, about 270 words, and the whole American creed: a close reading of the Bliss copy against the orator who spoke first and the nation that listened. Teddy Roosevelt's 1915 Warning Against Hyphenated Americanism, Read Closely A passage-by-passage reading of Roosevelt's 1915 Columbus Day speech on divided loyalty and equal treatment, with what still holds and what the war dated. The Statue of Liberty Was a Gift About Liberty, and the Poem Came Later The sonnet on the pedestal is beautiful, but it was written to raise money, mounted in 1903, and never said what immigration law should be. The Star-Spangled Banner Read as a Document of Survival, All Four Stanzas Francis Scott Key's poem is the prayer of a nation that nearly lost. Read all four stanzas, the flag behind them, and the argument over the third. The Northwest Ordinance Banned Slavery From a Territory Bigger Than France The 1787 ordinance made new states equals, listed rights before the Bill of Rights and barred slavery north of the Ohio. Read its articles closely. The Bladensburg Peace Cross, a World War I memorial and a 7-2 ruling A tall cross built in 1925 for 49 fallen soldiers survived a lawsuit, and the Court's reasoning explains why tearing it down would have been no neutral act. Why July 2 Was Independence Day and Other Fourth of July Questions Answered Real questions about the Fourth of July answered from the record: the Lee Resolution, Adams's prediction, the signing, the broadsides and the fireworks. Madison's Federalist 46 and the advantage of being armed that tyrants fear In Federalist 46 Madison calmed fears of a federal army by pointing to the armed citizens of America. Read it with Hamilton's No. 29 and the Anti-Federalists. John Adams Defended the British Soldiers Who Fired in the Boston Massacre In 1770 the patriot lawyer John Adams defended the soldiers whom Boston wanted hanged, and proved the cause of liberty was the rule of law. George Washington Gave Up Power Twice and Changed What Leaders Could Be Washington's greatness lay in what he refused: the Newburgh temptation, the resignation at Annapolis, a third term and a warning in the Farewell Address. Paul Revere Never Shouted the British Are Coming and Six More Revolution Myths Seven things Americans half-remember about the Revolution, tested against the record, and a defense of the truth, which is better than the legend. What Washington, Hamilton and Jefferson Feared and Hoped About Newcomers The Founders welcomed immigrants and worried about whether they would take up republican habits, and their disagreement beats today's slogans. What Washington's Farewell Address Really Said About Foreign Entanglements Washington warned against passionate attachments and permanent alliances, not all engagement. The exact words, the fights behind them, and a fair test for NATO. Thomas Paine's The Crisis and the Words Read Aloud to a Freezing Army A close reading of Paine's first Crisis essay of December 1776, said to have reached Washington's troops before Trenton, and why it still steadies us. The Forgotten Immigration Grievance in the Declaration of Independence The Declaration charges the King with blocking naturalization and discouraging migration, which shows the colonists claimed the right to decide who joins them. Two schoolgirls, a flag salute and the 1943 ruling that protected conscience Barnette reversed the Court's 1940 flag-salute ruling in three years, and a patriot has every reason to defend it. Justice Jackson's reasons are the best. Valley Forge Was a Winter of Hunger That Turned Farmers Into an Army The Continental Army entered Valley Forge starving and untrained and left it disciplined, thanks to Steuben, Greene and Washington's patience. Why Lexington Green and Concord Bridge Started a War on April 19, 1775 General Gage sent troops to seize the colonists' powder and cannon, and farmers who had drilled for months answered at Lexington and Concord. We the People Wrote a Preamble That Limits Government Instead of Licensing It The Preamble names six purposes and grants no power. Read it phrase by phrase, and see why the Supreme Court said so plainly in 1905.