My question is why you are surprised that america is now failing with moral issues and and government and privacy all over the world has been promoting selfishness, self interest, sex , corruption and a lot of other materialistic requirements and subsequently they have affected this country whether one way or another, it has come to this country and has been the result of the same policies, why are you surprised . First, im not entirely surprised. I think most people of goodwill on both sides of the proverbial aisle are not surprised but i think the best way to answer you is in this way, because itsprings from our book. Our Founding Fathers and mothers, and we know this from diaries, letters, observations, were very interested in that proverbial moment in western civilization where it ceased to be the Roman Republic where things were relatively free and became the roman empire. That people ceased being citizens and they became subjects, right . Not under the direction of the relative freedom of their own senate but under not one but 12 caesars. Im generalizing for purposes of our time together but their conclusion in part was that there had been a disconnect between a moral code and life in what became the romanempire. And the way that your question connects directly to the narrative of our book American Restoration, and i think this brings in part the late Michael Novaks observation that you cannot understand the United States of america if you dont understand that although we have no nationalestablished church, that we are ultimately a religious republic. That in the american experience, this virtue and moral excellence that gives us the ability for ordered liberty doesnt come from nowhere, that in the american experience, it comes from the holy bible and from scripture. And that does not presuppose that every one of our founders or every one of our Public Servants then or now, they are overwhelmingly and exclusively men and women of faith that in the american experience, our founders were very interested in knowing and deciding, discussing from history where that virtue quotient comes from and one of the things that we argue in American Restoration is the need to reconnect and rewe this very important connection between faith and public life, between revelation and reason. Leo strauss brilliantly in athens and jerusalem seized the dynamism of western civilization is this natural tension between reason and revelation and we need it in america. Its healthy in the Public Square to allow a large room for faith and religion and i believe that in this rising generation of young men and women, that despite the coarseness and toughness of the culture as we argue in American Restoration, and in fact there are new avenues for spiritual renewal because its essential towhat we need going forward. Way in the back row. Yes maam. Good afternoon mister goeglein, thank you for speaking with us today. I wonder for the Younger Generation who are going to eventually become mothers and fathers, what tangible advice do you have two find role models when we are living in a culture of so much divorce and fatherlessness, how do you find men andwomen to look up to to become great mothers and fathers one day . Im grateful for this question because i was at one of the Largest Christian University three years ago speaking to a large group of young people and i have to admit i forget what the topic was that day, but i remember a young woman raising her hand as she said the following referencing focus in the family. She said mister goeglein, those of us in this room, they were juniors andseniors in college, we want to be married. We want to have families of our own. We want that. You need to know that there are lots of us in this room and ill neverforget this , where he grew up in homes where our fathers didnt like our mothers andour mothers didnt like our fathers. So she said our generation has grown up with a lot of brokenness and we want to take it more slowly than others have. Ive never forgotten that. Another example, i was speaking at the Jackie Robinson center in southern california, very honored and privileged to be there and i remember finishing my speech after i said in the middle of the speech that my father is my best friend which happens to be the case and just like you snap your fingers, several of the young people in the room looked down at the floor as if i had said one of George Carlins seven dirty words and i said what have i said . So i asked one of my hosts, what did i say, it was a great speech . You said your dad is your best friend. Yes i did. You realize there are you a young percentage of people in that room who dont even know their biological dad or have never lived in the same room as their father. Ive never forgotten that. So the answer to your question is the following. In American Restoration, we hold up the family. We hold up marriage. We hold up parenting. These are great gifts from god, perhaps the greatest and we understand it is a new time and the new generation and i think that one of the important examples that we use is the ability to come into the most difficult marriages, the most difficult family situations and to model and pattern the way forward. I remember being in this room when mitch doctor, a great friend gave a speech in the 1990s when he said just remember, god is not put us in families only to behappy but because we are human. I love that. So the way forward i think is good. But the formation of it may take a little longer than we have in the past. Questions. Please. Thank you tim. A pleasure. You talk a lot about optimism and being a hopeful nation. I sort of see despair as well has the dam thats blocking a lot of this fresh flow of this good spirit of restoration. I wonder if you could say more about how we directly break that dam down. Im very glad you asked that. I wanted to quote one of my favorite authors gk chesterton who came over from england, i believe in the 1910s and i kid you not, he was such a remarkable figure in his speech and his narrative was so powerful they would invite people into the notre dame football station to listen to chesters and. Chesterton said at least five times that faith had to all appearances goneto the dogs. He says in each of these five cases it is the dog that died. I think thats right. Faith is not less relevant today than it was yesterday. And i would argue even in attendance to the last to question that faith remains more timely, more relevant, more topical to 21stCentury America than at any other time inamerican history. My son and i very recently were having a discussion about the five most notable battles of the civil war and at the end of that discussion i remember saying to my son and just remember that 750,000 americans died in the civil war. And that same evening we were watching something on television and one of the pundits said weve never been this divided in the history of the unitedstates. And i thought, really . So i think we have to be very careful as you are in your question that i think we have to be careful about assigning the political toxicity of 21st Century America and the divisions against other times in our country which have been remarkablytough. Right . The American Revolution itself, the nullification crisis, the civil war, the period of reconstruction afterward, two world wars, a great depression. Division in free societies is a reality. A gap in free societies is our reality. The question is how does a free society and agreat nation deal with that gap. And in our view in American Restoration, the recent in part we wrote this book is to say that religion and faith is not a divisive factor that pushes us farther apart, that in faith in the great judeochristian tradition, its a tool to help bringus together. And i believe thats the case in our history and i believe its the casenow. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, i think russell kurt and some of the others youve mentioned would have been proud proud to have shared this moratorium with you, youve been brilliant. This is the book American Restoration. The author would be happy to sign copies for you which are available outside in the hall. They come back in here and have him sign the book. Join me in thanking tim goeglein. Thank you all. Heres a look at books being published this week. New york times reporter jason day parlor looks at immigration through three generations of the family ina good provider is one who live leaves. And offers a critical look at his book of peoples history of the United States. Charles postell, the quality examines americas social movements following the civil war and an outlaw ocean, in her been a explores the criminal world that exists at sea where he reports traditional policing does not exist. Also being published this week is former Army Ranger Matt neffs memoir thank you for my service. In the assault on american excellence former Law School Dean Anthony Cromwell weighs in on the state of campus politics and argues s are not being prepared to engage in civil discourse after graduation and in serious library, World Affairs Court Correspondent Mike Thompson reports on a makeshift library on the outskirts of damascus that provided an escape for its patrons through a fouryear siege. Look for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for the authors on book tv on cspan2. Tonight at 9 pm eastern, after words with journalist natalie wexler, author of the knowledge gap
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