Greatness Without Cruelty

We live in a time of profound spiritual and moral crisis where the old gods—among them, biblical religion; sturdy and steady republican self-government; liberal inquiry about the true, the good, and the beautiful; monogamous marriage and sexual fidelity; freedom accompanied by salutary self-restraint—seem at once passé and moribund. The bright and energetic among the young are understandably tempted to dismiss the old verities as among the causes of our present discontents. Understandably but not wisely. Are the principles of the American Founding truly a “poison pill” leading to societal dissolution, moral confusion, and a generalized effeminacy? Is authentic Christianity coextensive with softness, pacifism, doctrinaire egalitarianism, and moral non-judgmentalism? Is there no principled middle ground between softness and cruelty, between an apolitical cosmopolitanism and a politics of bellicosity and self-assertion?