In his 1796 farewell address, our first President George Washington said, “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle”. In short, the very survival of our nation relies on the survival of our public faith. Our founding fathers created a brilliant system of government with checks and balances, but that system was based upon a nation that practiced their freedom of religion. With this upcoming primary election, we must remember to look deeper than flashy social media ads and commercials. Instead, it’s important to ask: will this candidate support our nation’s founding values?

Let us not forget that the government’s job is not to create rights for its people, but to protect the rights every man and woman naturally possesses from their Creator. The founders summarized these rights best under the categories of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Therefore we should always keep these rights in mind when we cast our vote. Life is the first of the unalienable rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence for a reason. But we can’t truly be a nation that values life until we elect leaders who are willing to protect life from conception until natural death.

Our nation was also founded on the principle of religious freedom- a right so important that our founders enshrined its protection in our very first amendment. We all know the treasured history of the New England colonists who, when told by their government how to practice their religion, packed up and left, creating their own “City on a Hill” where their community could worship and pray to God without government interference. It’s easy for a candidate to say they support religious freedom- pretty much every candidate does! But when common sense proposals are brought to the Legislature to protect medical providers’ religious consciences, these proposals are met with hostility. James Madison put it well in 1785, saying, “The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man: and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate”.

But valuing basic religious freedom is not enough on its own. With the right to free expression of religion equally comes the responsibility, and especially for our leaders, to use that religion for good. John Adams didn’t mince words when he made it clear what our society would look like when that responsibility is not acted on. As Adams put it, “Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company: I mean hell”.

So, in this upcoming primary election, and all future elections for that matter, our values matter. Religious freedom, protecting life, and the promotion of Christian values were considered necessary for the survival of a free nation in 1776 and they continue to be necessary today.

This election I encourage you to vote for candidates who are truly committed to upholding our founders’ revolutionary vision. But supporting our nation’s founding values does not end at the ballot box either; it will take a culture built by families, pastors, and community leaders alike.