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Well, without boring you with biographical detail, It's 27 years later. And I've been in Washington all those years as a Christian, as a conservative, as a Republican in that order. And I've come to see that I am surrounded. And I do mean surrounded not by people of no faith, but by people of faith who believe that America's best days are behind us. People have come to two of lost hope and lost a sense of optimism in the United States of America. Now, I grew up in the shadow of the disaster that we otherwise called the Vietnam War. By the way, probably in those days, I would have been for the war. And I also grew up in the shadow of Watergate, which was another, as you all know, extraordinarily difficult time for the United States of America. Following Vietnam Watergate, which you all know resulted in the first resignation of a US president ever President, Richard Nixon came the administration of Jimmy Carter. And by 1979, which was the last year of the Carter administration, America, as a sum total, had been through perhaps among the 25 most difficult ears in contemporary American history. And out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere came a former actor called Ronald Reagan. Now, round Reagan had made over 50 movies by, by any measure, and Hollywood, that means you're a success. But his career had faded by the late 1950s. And he had become the president of the Screen Actors Guild. And for the first time ever, he learned about the raw nature of how ideas clash. Because in one of the most significant moves ever in the history of that guild, communists working to infiltrate Hollywood. And they were working to change the worldview of the United States of America in a direction that was more open and hospitable, not hostile to a Marxist worldview. Ronald Reagan became the governor of California in the 1960s. People couldn't believe it. This former actor, a conservative Republican, had become the governor. One of the most otherwise thought to be liberal states in the United States of America. And he was a product of Hollywood. But you know what, they didn't know about Ronald Reagan. They did not know that this affable when some funny man was deadly serious about the greatness of the United States of America. And in fact, the single phrase that Ronald Reagan used more often than any phrase in all of his speeches, was a phrase that was first used by one of the pilgrim fathers before the founding of the United States. This pilgrim father was John Winthrop. And evoking the Bible, he said of America, that this country was as a city shining on a hill. Now for those of us who are Christians, that is a powerful image, a very powerful image. And you all know that the nature of our faith is that we do not cover it up, but that we let its light shines for all to see. And Ronald Reagan, I was drawing a direct comparison between the power and luminosity of the Christian faith and the direction of the United States of America. Now for a lot of people in the 1960s who had not been paying attention, those were fighting words. That somehow religion and government went together. Wasn't that a joke? Hadn't Ronald Reagan been paying attention? Wasn't he aware of Vietnam? Watergate was still in the future, but a person who thought that America was exceptional, person who believed that America had been called out of all of human history to be a leader for freedom in the world. Who was this man? I have to tell you that I began paying attention to politics in the early 1970s. And I was enamored of Ronald Reagan. California was a long way from Indiana. But I remember watching this remarkable politicians say all the things that I believed in as a Christian. I became a young aragonite. And add exactly the same time that round Reagan was coming to power. Another person came on my radar scope. Ever heard of Jerry Falwell? Now let me just tell you something about Jerry Falwell. I was raised as a Lutheran and in the 1970s, by enlarge Lutherans did not listen to Southern Baptists on the radio. But I had an uncle called uncle Ted. Uncle Ted was not a Baptist either. But let me tell you something he was he was a person who believed with Ronald Reagan that this was an exceptional country. And he told me, he said, You know, Tim. He said I'm hearing this. Some radio broadcasts called the, the old time Gospel our silently erred on a radio station in Indiana. I want you to listen to this man. I said, Is he a politician? No, he's not a politician. In fact, he's a pastor. But he seems to be saying the same things that Ronald Reagan as saying. He seems to be saying that religion and public policy go together. He seems to be saying that God has his arm on the United States of America. I was really intrigued by this. And the more I listen to the old time gospel hour, and the more that I read about Jerry Falwell, and the more that I read about Ronald Reagan, I realized something. I realized that in the Christian life, thinking that you can step on this side of a bright line and be a Christian. And step on this side of the bright line and say, Well now I'm in the workplace. I gotta take off my Christian hat or credentials and put them on a shelf. Or that on this side of the line. If I'm in politics or public policy, if I'm in the military or banking, or law or medicine, that I can do what I do really well, as long as I never talk about my faith. But when I step over here into the private confines of my house, then I can be a Christian. Know both these men, both these men seem to be saying just the opposite. That in the American experience, religion and public life went together. So I began to do some research. And I began to find that in fact, from the very beginning of the United States of America, politics and public life and Christianity were of a single piece. Let me say it another way. George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, john Kennedy. They all believed as different as they were, that Americans had one thing in common. And when it came to thinking about the nature of the preservation of liberty, here's what they believed. They believe that you could not have liberty and freedom over time. It, unless you had virtue. First. They believed that virtue was the other side of freedom. You all know what I mean when I say virtue, moral excellence. I want to say this very clearly. The major political figures of American life all believed as different as they were on big things. That you could not have liberty and freedom without virtue. And they said that in the American experience, moral excellence came from where? The Bible. Now, I want to give you a couple of very quick examples. Oh, it's trendy. In the town where I live, Washington DC. To suggest that George Washington was really not a Christian. Now, I'm not overstating this are understating this. I live seven miles from Mount Vernon and I go to Mount Vernon at least twice a year. I go all the way through the bookshop at Mount Vernon. And I cannot find a single book that talks about the most important thing in George Washington's life. He was on the vestry, which is the Anglican way of saying the church leadership of the PO HQ parish, a very famous Anglican parish. He was on the vestry for over 30 years. And in the Anglican tradition, almost every Sunday, you say either the nice seen Creed or the Apostles Creed or the Athanasius Creed. Now all these creeds have one giant thing in common. You confess that Jesus Christ is the only Lord and Savior. That he had a virgin birth. They had an earthly ministry. Betty died and rose from the dead. Now, if George Washington were alive today, he would be one of a tiny little group of men called five-star generals. You all know about George Washington. George Washington was the greatest American. Without any peer. There would be no United States of America if there had been no George Washington. One man ready for this first president of the Constitutional Convention. Unanimous consent. Twice elected President of the United States of America by unanimous consent. And our founding lead, General Adams, Jefferson Hamilton Dickinson. The greatest founders. Different men, often sparring politically, you know what they all said, all of them independently that George Washington was the greatest man who ever lived. Wow, pretty extraordinary. Do five-star generals, who are all those things? Do they go to church for 30 and 40 and 50 years and say creeds that they didn't believe. George Washington was a serious Christian. He is the man who said that we would have chaplains in the US military. Because he wrote very famously that the spiritual life of his soldiers was as important as anything else. He famously said that religion and morality worthy. I'm using his words now you're ready. The indispensable supports of liberties. There are also the indispensable supports of Liberty University. I think this is the greatest university in the United States of America without peer. Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt, what a big name, elected four times to the presidency. The only man ever elected four times to the presidency. Went to Groton, went to Harvard. A spoiled child. Somebody once said of FDR that he had a second class temperament, pardon me, a second class intellect, but a first-class temperament. He was a real charmer. On one of the most brilliant, extraordinary, remarkable days in all of American history. You all know what day that is, D-Day. Hope you've all been to the D-Day Memorial less than 25 miles from where you're sitting. You all know about bed for Virginia, right? 30 men go over to D Day. 19 of them lose their lives. The greatest by percentage losses of any community in the United States of America. Maybe other than the French Revolution, the biggest event in the history of Europe. The United States of America liberated. We're up against tyranny. D-day is a big day. D-day is part of what makes this country truly exceptional. Do not how Franklin Delano Roosevelt chose to speak to the United States of America on the eve of D-Day. I kid you not, you cannot make this up. He did a lengthy, monumental radio speech in the form of a long prayer. How many of you in here have memorized or read at least once the Gettysburg Address. Easily in the top five most important speeches ever delivered on these shores. The Gettysburg Address is a sermon. Everybody in the United States had given up on Abraham Lincoln. Do you know the prospects for his re-election were so bad that Lincoln expected to lose. And when he went to Gettysburg that day, there was only one group of Americans who were still supporting Abraham Lincoln. Let me say it this way. If we had the Gallup political polls that year, Lincoln support probably would've been about 25 percent. He went there and spoke after a man who spoke for nearly two hours. The Gettysburg Address is, you know, is a very, very short speech. But you know what that speech assumes. It assumes that everybody listening to him in that monumental extraordinary speech. That they were Evangelical Christians that's who lived in and around Gettysburg then and now. It was one of the pockets of Angelica Christianity. And in the beautiful prose cadence in that speech, Lincoln evokes the King James version of the Bible over and over and over again. This is your history. We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest speeches ever. The I Have a Dream speech. It is impossible to hear that speech. And not understand the deep, the deep power of Christianity and how it is a foundational part of everything that defines us as Americans. So let me say this all another way. In America. God and government go together. I was at the University of Virginia last week with my oldest son. And we took a tour of the university. And when we got there, I don't know how many of you've been to Charlottesville or to the University of Virginia. We had a tour guide who the first thing that he told us ready for this. The first thing he told us was that Thomas Jefferson was a secularist, had designed the first university purposely to separate GOD from education. And that government was pushed purposely to the sidelines. The State University in this great Commonwealth. Now, I have to tell you, I've been a student of Thomas Jefferson's my entire life. And I, I'm, I'm sorry to say to you that I think the best historical evidence is that Jefferson was probably not a Christian. But that's something quite different from saying that he did not except and confirm and promote the validity and power and importance of religion.