Happy Fidelity Month. In keeping with Professor Robert P. George’s request that evangelical Americans celebrate the virtue of fidelity this June (as opposed to you-know-what month), I have decided to spend several weeks unpacking each of the four objects Prof. George recommends we cultivate fidelity towards. The first on his list is God; fidelity to God. I can safely assume that, if you are here—seeing that this piece is, after all, preachy enough to be called “Fidelity to God”—you probably already possess at least some baseline interest in fidelity to God, or else you would have skipped this piece. But maybe not. Maybe you’re a doubter. Maybe you’re here simply to see what on earth God and religion have to do with self-governance. You’ve gotten along just fine at being self-governing without either. The very title, therefore, piques you.My first question for you would be: how’s that going for the rest of society? For all intents and purposes, God is dead to most Americans. How’s that going for them? My suspicions are that you are probably distraught at the direction modern society is heading. You’re probably half afraid your kids will be sucked into the gyre along with everyone else. I suspect that because you are probably semi-sane, and most semi-sane people feel that way. But what is to buttress us, as a nation, against the insanity you and I can both agree has gotten so out of hand? More parochially, what will buttress your kids against the insanity? Hardcore, red-blooded Republican party politics? SEE ALSO: The Transgressive Road to Slavery Like you, your kids are probably semi-sane, too. But do not commit the serious error of underestimating the grave seduction of modernity. Sure, your kids may be immune to one particular batch of woke garbage. But who’s to say they can resist the rest of the left’s endless buffet of offerings? Who’s to say they won’t one day buck against your traditional—but absolutely not religious!—worldview?Across America, millions of parents are positively flummoxed at what is happening to their kids. These parents show up at rallies, wave their American flags, and boycott Bud Light, but are baffled at the mess their own flesh and blood find themselves in. Their kids grew up on conservative talk radio and country music—and now they’re twerking on TikTok. Now they’re gyrating at “family-friendly” pride parades. Somehow, semi-sanity didn’t save them from that.But your kids aren’t that weird, right? Remember, though, there are a thousand paths to destruction, and every one of them is fashionable in America today. You’re simply praying (to what?) that your kids stay away from x, y, and z and that your good ol’ boy, down-to-earth Republicanism saves them from it all. “I know a lot of right-wing nonbelievers, and it’s true, some have successfully indoctrinated their kids to mostly reject woke culture,” wrote author Peachy Keenan. “But what happens in high school when their kids are invited to the polyamorous clothing-optional BDSM-themed prom? What page in the MAGA handbook tells you how to handle this? Will your subscription to Fox Nation be enough to guide your children through the minefield?” SEE ALSO: Prof. declares June ‘Fidelity Month’ as alternative to ‘Pride’ “And at the end of the day,” she continued, “politics, even the “correct” politics, will not suffice to inoculate children against the seductions of modern culture. It won’t keep your kids off the pole, so to speak. The other side is offering your children a lifetime supply of guilt-free promiscuity, 24/7 on-demand porn, and abortion safety nets. That’s a tough offer to top. “Because I said so!” is unlikely to get them to delete Pornhub and Tinder off their phones—or never download them in the first place.”So, politics isn’t enough to save your kids. Just because you approve of how they vote, doesn’t mean you’ll approve of how they live. More than likely you won’t approve of either. America is in trouble today because one side’s favorite virtue is “authenticity” and the other’s is “freedom,” and as it turns out, they both produce the same kind of kids: rebels. Simply teaching your children ’bout ’merica won’t keep them off of OnlyFans. It won’t keep them from watching their lives go up in flames. It takes a much greater buttress to shield against that.On the other hand, Mrs. Keenan observed, “[w]hen you raise children to believe in God, they have a final authority to answer to. Not you, not the president, not even their favorite YouTube personality, can fully control them. This is why the people in charge bleat so loudly about the dangers of “Christian nationalism” and “religious fundamentalism.” They are afraid of you laughing in their faces when they attempt to impose their dumb rules on you. Children raised to believe in God just wave these haters away. When your values, morals, and rights come from the divine, they are not up for discussion or debate. They cannot be repealed or replaced. God cannot be canceled.” SEE ALSO: Are Christian home-schoolers revolting? “Children who believe this will naturally be skeptical of politicians who make dumb decisions. They will intuitively understand that unborn children deserve to live. They will live by a moral code more compelling than anything man could ever legislate. They will be forces for good in a world breaking bad. They will be better able to resist the urge to join the mind-flayed lemmings flinging themselves by the thousands into Trans Canyon. They will have more willpower to refuse the first offer of a dangerous drug. They will be better prepared to resist the temptation to indulge in harmful sexual behaviors. They will cherish their own lives.”So, why does America need fidelity to God? Because infidelity isn’t working. Forget just your children; all of society is going up in flames! The fabric is torn. Our future is in shambles. We desperately need to place our faith in something higher than whatever it’s in now because whatever it’s in now has failed us.Authenticity and freedom both gnaw at fidelity. They undermine allegiance. Soon, we all are loyal to no one but ourselves, answerable only to our personal whims.To some, that may sound like paradise. Reality paints a different picture; reality says it’s more like hell. So, unless you want to continue in hell and unless you have some alternate escape route in mind, perhaps we need God more than you thought.Jakob Fay is a staff writer for the Convention of States.
