What has happened to American civilization? Shared moral values used to define the uniqueness of America (e.g., virtue, a sense of community and compassion). Columnist David Brooks provides a framework for understanding the enormous shift away from these shared values that has occurred within America over the last 50 years or so
The Founders of this nation argued that democracy could survive only if citizens could restrain “their passions, be obedient to a shared moral order and point their lives toward virtue. They relied on religious institutions to do that moral formation. As John Adams put it, ‘Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’” Indeed, Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1830s concluded that “For the Americans, the idea of Christianity and liberty are so completely mingled that it is almost impossible to get them to conceive of one without the other.”
In his quest for meaning and purpose in life, King Solomon used his God-given wisdom and extensive experience to find purpose. In Ecclesiastes 2:12-23, he pursued wealth and material abundance as the keys to meaning and purpose. Solomon tested the two extremes of the human condition—wisdom on the one end and foolishness on the other. It was obvious that wisdom was better than folly. The wise man sees the dangers and avoids them, whereas the fool does not. But this begs the question, why be wise, because both die? What sense does that make? Perhaps it really was better to eat drink and be merry, because tomorrow we die, he reasoned. Was it not in fact “wiser” to be a fool? For both the wise and the fool, everyone will forget them. “I hated life,” he declared. There seemed to be no reason to work hard, to be wise—it was ultimately, in light of death, meaningless!
To be consistently an advocate for the value and worth of human life is a significant challenge in 2025. Those who name the name of Jesus Christ must test their value system and strive for consistency and authenticity as advocates for life. Indeed, columnist and evangelical Christian, David French, argues that “A decent society should do all it reasonably can to reduce human suffering. It should not, however, do so by extinguishing the lives of those who suffer or the lives of those who we believe might suffer in the future.”
In August 2025, a reporter asked President Trump about ending Russia’s war on Ukraine. He responded: “I want to end it,” he said. “I want to try and get to heaven if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.” His campaign’s political action committee then followed up with an appeal to his supporters to help him get into heaven by giving money.
It has been several weeks since Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on 10 September 2025 on the campus of Utah Valley University. Much has happened since then, including a memorial service for him in Arizona. I have been thinking about and reflecting upon this momentous event.
One of my favorite thought leaders today is columnist and Christian, David Brooks. He recently published an essay on the absence of hope and purpose in so much of America. As I read his essay, I kept thinking of the book of Ecclesiastes. I want to quote from his essay and then turn to the solution in the 3,000 year old book written by King Solomon.
Jeffrey Epstein (1953-2019) was an American financier and convicted sex offender who was accused of serial sex trafficking of women and girls. Along with his convicted confederate, Ghislaine Maxwell, he systematically groomed and sexually abused (and enabled the sexual abuse of) hundreds and hundreds of young women and girls. Through his successful financial career, Epstein became a multimillionaire and developed a social circle that included extremely wealthy individuals, prominent politicians, and even royalty. While jailed and awaiting a federal sex-trafficking trial, Epstein killed himself by hanging.
On 6 and 9 August 1945 (80 years ago), the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, ultimately ending World War II. These bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people. This has been the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. This event, George Will observes, “transported humanity from one geopolitical era to another.”
On 16 July 2025, Andy Byron (50), CEO of the medium-sized software company Astronomer, attended a Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts. [Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997 and are considered one of the most influential bands of the 21st century.] The jumbotron camera turned to Byron, who was holding Kristin Cabot (52), the company’s HR director, around the waist. When they noticed themselves on the stadium’s “kiss cam” (camera), they immediately disengaged, with Cabot turning her back and Byron awkwardly ducking out of view. “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” said Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin, to the stadium audience of 66,000. Cabot and Byron were indeed married, but not to each other. The clip quickly went viral on TikTok, then everywhere else.
