The Political Economy of Morality

The Republican leaders, you see, are so confident they can sweep back to power by focusing only on economic issues, that they are ready to promote an election agenda that ignores the party's historical commitment to life, marriage, and religious liberty.

I believe that we, as Christians, need to tell them they are dead wrong. And here's why. You've heard me say many times that the Church can never be captive to a political agenda, that we can never place our hope in any political party.

But we are always free to let leaders in both political parties know that they must hear our concerns. They must realize our allegiance is not to their party, but to those causes that promote the common good.

This is why we launched the Manhattan Declaration—to make an unequivocal statement in support of human life, traditional marriage, and religious freedom. And I truly long for the day when both of our great political parties will embrace these causes.

Now, you may say that what the Republicans are doing is just good election strategy. The economy is in the tank, people want jobs and they want Obamacare repealed, so concentrate on those things.

But there's a flaw in that logic. Actually, it's an enormous blind spot.

If the Great Recession of 2008 has taught us anything, it's that you can't detach economic prosperity from moral issues. Greed, imprudent spending by individuals and by government, debt, all of these things brought our economy to where we are today. As I've said many times on BreakPoint, our economic collapse is the result of our moral and ethical collapse.

We don't teach our kids that there are such things as right or wrong, and we wonder why they grow up to cheat and steal.

And the social costs of disintegrating traditional families in terms of crime, divorce, juvenile delinquency, are truly staggering.

You don't think supporting traditional families—and marriage—matters? Well, then you've never been inside a prison, like I have. You haven't met the thousands of young men and women I have who have told you about their missing fathers or their drugged-out moms.

No society that rejects the moral good can possibly stay solvent. The price tag for moral corruption, as we have learned, is simply too high.

So here is what I want you to do. Call your congressmen and senators, Democrat and Republican alike, tell them you support the sanctity of human life, traditional marriage, and religious freedom. And then tell them you vote.

Next, go to BreakPoint.org, click on this commentary, and you'll find contact information for House Republican leader John Boehner and Republican Whip Eric Cantor. Let them know you expect the Republican Party to stay true to its traditional support for these supremely important moral concerns.

Because America's economic health depends on America's moral health.