Was the Alaska summit a success?

Last Friday, the world watched history being made as US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska. However, the question after the summit concluded was, What history?

According to Mr. Trump, it was “a great and very successful day in Alaska!” The conservative outlet The Daily Signal listed as its first takeaway, “Putin: No Invasion Had Trump Been President.” On the other side, the New York Times headlined, “Trump Bows to Putin’s Approach on Ukraine,” while Time claimed, “Trump and Putin Didn’t Make a Deal, but Putin Still Won.” When Mr. Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders this afternoon, we can expect partisan coverage to remain partisan.

Your opinion of Mr. Trump prior to the Alaska meeting is likely your opinion this morning: you are either giving him the benefit of the doubt on the summit, or you are doubting its benefit.

It’s hard to identify a political or cultural topic over which Americans are not deeply divided on partisan or ideological lines. From abortion to same-sex marriage to gerrymandering and whatever political stories make today’s news, we seem to be unable to agree on the most fundamental issues of our time.

Philosophers like me typically describe our “post-truth” culture as a phenomenon that began with the rise of postmodern relativism and the sexual revolution in the 1960s. But its cultural origins actually go back much further in American history, with consequences that affect us all today.

What the American “Cause” was and was not

Joseph J. Ellis is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian specializing in the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers. I have read several of his works over the years with great profit. I just finished his recent book The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773–1783, which I found fascinating and informative on a variety of levels.

He describes the “cause” for which Americans fought as the quest for independence from England. This is obvious to anyone who knows our history. But Ellis explains in great detail that this was the only cause that united thirteen very disparate colonies. The Founders knew that seeking unanimity or even unity on the disputes that divided them would end their revolution before it began.

As a result, they took no substantive position on three key issues.

The first was states’ rights vs. national authority. Their initial governing document, the Articles of Confederation, had no centralized power, no executive or judicial branch, and no ability to regulate commerce or enforce laws. The national army led by Gen. George Washington was supplemented by state and local militias that were often given greater credit than the army for victories over the British. This ideological fissure continued to produce various tremors until it led to the earthquake that was the Civil War, which I have heard some in the South still call “the Battle for States’ Rights.”

The second was slavery, a cultural fracture that produced the Civil War and was not resolved legislatively until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, though issues related to racial prejudice continue today. The third involved the rights of indigenous peoples, who lost 98 percent of their ancestral homelands from 1492 to 1900.

The Founders knew these issues and debated them fiercely. But they also knew that seeking their resolution as part of their revolution would likely doom the revolution.

From “sacred” to “self-evident”

They also knew that their movement, to ensure the unity needed for its success, could not center on religious convictions. As Ellis reports, Thomas Jefferson’s initial draft of the Declaration of Independence stated, “We hold these truths to be sacred,” which Benjamin Franklin changed to “self-evident.”

There is a world of difference in the difference.

The word “God” nowhere appears in the US Constitution, while “religion” is used only twice: Article VI states that “no religious Test shall ever be required” as a qualification for public office, while the First Amendment states the Congress shall “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

You and I would likely wish for our nation to be more committed legislatively and judicially to the Christian worldview than has been true across our history. But Americans of other religions and no religion would wish for the same commitment to their versions of truth. And within the spectrum of those who identify as Christian, there is deep disagreement over abortion, LGBTQ ideology, and even the nature of moral authority.

We can lament the secular nature of the nation the Founders birthed. Or we can use the “level playing field” they created to advance the religious movement that is foundational to our national future and our personal flourishing.

Eight words that change everything

Experiencing God’s love through faith in Christ changes sinners into saints as nothing else can. It makes us a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and empowers us to be “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) so that we can “glorify God in [our] body” (1 Corinthians 6:20) and manifest the character of Christ in our lives and influence (Galatians 5:22–23).

This transformation is the only path to the sustained morality that George Washington considered “indispensable” to “political prosperity.” In the absence of such morality, as John Adams warned, our Constitution is “wholly inadequate” to govern our nation.

The key is to submit each day to the authority of God’s word and the sanctifying power of his Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16–17; Ephesians 5:18). And the key to such submission is remembering each day the unfathomable love of our Father for us.

David could say in the face of great danger, “I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever” (Psalm 52:8). This is because our Lord promises his people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3).

God’s love extends to you and me today: “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4) and loves us as much as he loves his own Son (John 17:23, 26). This is not due to our merit but his nature as the God who “is” love (1 John 4:8).

If we believe this, we trust our Father’s will even when we don’t understand it. We believe that seeking holistic holiness and serving our Lord unconditionally are best for us every moment of every day. And we will pay any price to help others experience his love as well.

David testified,

“This I know, that God is for me” (Psalm 56:9).

If you will say these eight words right now, and believe what you say to be true, their truth will change your life.

And your changed life will change your world.

Quote for the day:

“In loving me, you made me lovable” —Brennan Manning

Our latest website resources:

• Changed people change the world
• Public, private, homeschool, or online? A guide for Christian parents
• Why are Trump and Putin meeting in Alaska? The grandeur of God’s creation and the power of his presence
• School bus crashes on the first day of school: A reflection on fear, evolution, and faith
• Vladimir Putin and the problem of autocratic power: An issue that affects all churches and Christians