A walk in the old paths

What is the future of conservatism? This is a live question as conservatives look over the long horizon and consider a future beyond the figure who has dominated politics for the last decade: Donald Trump. To be sure, the 47th president still sees much to accomplish in the years ahead, but the ideological feeding frenzy is sure to pick up after the midterms. Will conservatism be defined by neo-conservatives, paleo-conservatives, populist conservatives, or social conservatives? Will Ronald Reagan’s three-legged stool coalition concerned with national security, family values, and fiscal restraint be reconstituted for a new era? What role will right-wing influencers play, given their flexible ideological commitments?

This riddle is wrapped inside a larger enigma, the question of what America’s future will be. As this experiment in ordered liberty lurches toward her 250th birthday, these political debates are wrapped up in the varied perspectives on what lies ahead for America, ranging from the pessimistic to the pollyannish. For Christians, who will play an influential role in shaping the future, this conversation is important.

One such leader, my friend Timothy Goeglein, offers what he considers the vital virtues for America’s future flourishing. Goeglein, who has been active at the intersection of faith and politics for over three decades, boils his answer down to three essential ingredients: faith, family, and freedom. Those comprise the subtitle of his new book, What Really Matters, a compilation of his best columns from outlets such as The Washington Times.

Goeglein, who for the last two decades has served as the vice president for external and government relations at Focus on the Family, believes that freedom is symbiotic with the family and with faith. In other words, America must nurture the latter in order to experience the former. He writes, “Family and religious faith ... are the true stabilizing factors in any society, and a stable society is a primary goal of conservatism.” This is not altogether different than the wisdom of the men who founded America.

Consider John Adams’ well-known maxim, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” It’s backed up by mountains of social science data that points to the family and to faith as key contributors to America’s flourishing. Brad Wilcox, professor of sociology and director of the National Marriage Project at University of Virginia, has long documented the negative impact, across a range of social factors, of the decline of the family, synthesized in his well-received book, Get Married. And even some non-believers have seemed to urge a return to a more church-going American populace.

True Christian revival and a restoration of the family cannot begin in the very place, Washington, D.C., where Goeglein is tasked with championing social conservative public policy. And the former aide to Sen. Dan Coats and George W. Bush knows this, taking to the pages of What Really Matters to urge his fellow evangelicals to prioritize the work of their local churches, which, he rightly charges, should speak more about marriage and family matters. He writes:

It is time for us who believe in the sanctity of marriage to no longer sit on the sidelines while our children learn about marriage from the Kardashians or watching The Bachelor. Instead, we must be emphasizing the beauty and sanctity of marriage, why it is spiritually, emotionally, and physically beneficial to not cohabit with someone of the opposite sex, and why waiting will be ultimately to their benefit in each of those areas. With this vision of marriage prioritized in our churches, we can once again not only have stable families but also a church possessing the moral authority to be a dear and convincing voice reestablishing a flourishing society and the dignity of love.

Goeglein understands, of course, that conservatism will involve more than the virtue of family and a foundation of Christian faith. In his columns, for instance, he urges a doubling down on civic education and patriotic understanding of America’s place in the world. I agree and believe that the epidemic of self-loathing on both the left and the right is poisonous for our future.

Whatever shape conservatism takes in the next era of politics, let it at least include the tried-and-true pillars Goeglein articulates. We live in a new world, with new challenges and new opportunities, but we might approach these years with the words of the prophet Jeremiah in our ears: “Stand by where the roads cross, and look. Ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it. And you will find rest for your souls (Jeremiah 6:16).”