Can America Survive Without Christianity? Bari Weiss, The Free Press.  Author Jonathan Rauch joins Bari on Honestly to discuss how the success of liberal democracy depends on a healthy Christianity to support it—and if Christianity falters, America will falter too.

• • On where the church fell short: …  JR: The biggest gap—and I say this as a secular person who cares about governability—is that while the church has done a decent job of forming people in the image of Jesus in private life—family, community, disaster relief—it has failed to teach how to be like Jesus in public life.

There’s been almost no “discipling” around politics and social media. 

• Christianity, Citizenship, Quality Management. Raising awareness on the interrelationship between Christianity, Citizenship, and Quality Management.
  • Genesis 1:  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And there was variation.  Successfully reducing variation results in more needs being met and less harm being caused to individuals as a result of unmet needs. 

Catholics and Patriotism. Can people devoted to a perfect God also be devoted to an imperfect country?  

• • During the Cold War, the Knights of Columbus and veterans’ organizations called on Congress to add “under God” to the Pledge. When President Dwight D. Eisenhower attended a service in honor of Lincoln’s birthday, he heard the Presbyterian Rev. George Docherty sermonize: “To omit the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance is to omit the definitive factor in the American way of life.” He added, “An atheistic American is a contradiction in terms. If you deny the Christian ethic, you fall short of the American ideal of life.” On Flag Day in 1954, Congress—with Eisenhower’s signature—added the words “under God” to the Pledge.

Gary Varvel: Independence Day 2025

• • Unfortunately America today is not what the Founding Father’s envisioned. We are the home to a great number of people who hate the red, white and blue. They proudly wave the flag of their home country in their mostly “peaceful protests” of our country.

    I recently asked the question, how did this happen to our country? How did our house get so divided?

    The answer is: We slowly destroyed the Spiritual foundation of our house.