Politics and culture are important, but their degradation is a symptom of a deeper ailment in America.

As socialist-leaning candidates continue to notch victories in Democratic primaries across major cities, many observers sound the alarm about the growing appeal of collectivist ideologies in what was once the world’s beacon of liberty.

Yet fixating solely on this political shift misses the deeper rot. Socialism is not America’s primary affliction; it is a visible symptom of a profound spiritual and moral decline that has hollowed out the character of a once-virtuous people.

Our nation’s extraordinary blessings—unparalleled prosperity, liberty, and opportunity—did not arise by accident or from purely secular Enlightenment principles. They flowed from a people who, however imperfectly, acknowledged the sovereignty of God. As America marks its 250th anniversary, this moment demands more than nostalgic reflection. It calls for a candid reckoning with how far we have strayed from the covenantal foundations that sustained generations before us.

John Winthrop’s 1630 vision of a “city upon a hill” was no mere political slogan. It described a community bound by responsibility before the Almighty, shaping the moral framework that would later define the American experiment. George Washington echoed this in his Farewell Address, insisting that “Religion and Morality are indispensable supports” to political prosperity. He warned against supposing that morality could long endure without its religious roots, tying the nation’s felicity directly to its virtue.

A free republic cannot survive on laws alone. Statutes restrain the wicked, but they cannot birth integrity, self-restraint, or sacrificial love for neighbor. Those qualities emerge only when hearts are transformed by submission to God and His Word. When that foundation crumbles, envy, dependency, and centralized power rush in to fill the void. Socialism, with its promise of earthly utopia through state coercion, thrives precisely where biblical faith recedes.

Recent decades have witnessed accelerating evidence of this erosion: family dissolution, cultural confusion over basic realities like sex and identity, the normalization of practices once unthinkable in a society shaped by Christian ethics, and a growing segment of the population untethered from any transcendent moral authority.

Political movements promising “equity” through redistribution gain traction not primarily because of economic arguments, but because generations raised without a sense of divine order and personal accountability crave substitutes for meaning and provision.

Yet history offers hope amid the decline. America’s past is punctuated by seasons of spiritual awakening that reversed moral decay and renewed public virtue. From the First Great Awakening that prepared the colonies for independence to later revivals that fueled reform and resilience, God has repeatedly visited His people when they humbled themselves.

The path forward is not found in better policy alone, though prudent governance matters. It begins with the renewal of God’s people—cultivating gratitude, deepening trust in divine providence, and reclaiming the scriptural convictions that animated the Founders. Parents teaching children truth, churches preaching uncompromised gospel, believers living as salt and light in their communities: these are the quiet revolutions that precede national restoration.

In an age of headlines fixated on electoral battles and ideological clashes, we do well to remember the words of the psalmist. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD: and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” (Psalm 33:12)

This truth stands as both diagnosis and prescription. A people who forsake their God will find every substitute ideology wanting.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, rightly urges a summer journey through the Psalms to restore biblical foundations. Such deliberate return to Scripture is no escapist piety; it is the essential work of cultural preservation. If America is to remain a land of liberty and justice, its people must first be a people of virtue, formed by the enduring Word that outlasts every political fad.

The question before us on this anniversary is not merely whether we will resist socialism, but whether we will repent and return. The republic’s endurance depends on the answer.

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