Did you know that Dr. Martin Luther King asked his followers to take a pledge of non-violence and to follow 5 core principles of non-violence?

Many of them had faced prejudice and persecution most of their lives, but they agreed to govern their lives with love, to love even their enemies, and to give service to others.

No wonder they were successful!   




Here are the  beautiful rules and principles they agreed to follow:

1. As you prepare to march meditate on the life and teachings of Jesus.
2. Remember the nonviolent movement seeks justice and reconciliation – not victory.
3. Walk and talk in the manner of love; for God is love.
4. Pray daily to be used by God that all men and women might be free.
5. Sacrifice personal wishes that all might be free.
6. Observe with friend and foes the ordinary rules of courtesy.
7. Perform regular service for others and the world.
8. Refrain from violence of fist, tongue and heart.
9. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.
10. Follow the directions of the movement leaders and of the captains on demonstrations.

The Five Principles of Nonviolence

• Non-violent resistance is not a method for cowards. It does resist. The nonviolent resister is just as strongly opposed to the evil against which he protests, as is the person who uses violence. His method is passive or nonaggressive in the sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his opponent, but his mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade the opponent that he is mistaken. This method is passive physically but strongly active spiritually; it is nonaggressive physically but dynamically aggressive spiritually.

• Nonviolent resistance does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding. The nonviolent resister must often express his protest through noncooperation but he realizes that noncooperation is not the ends itself; it is merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent.

• The attack is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who are caught in those forces. It is a struggle between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness.

• Nonviolent resistance avoids not only external physical violence, but also internal violence of spirit. At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

• Nonviolence is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice. It is the deep faith in the future that allows a nonviolent resister to accept suffering without retaliation. The nonviolent resister knows that in his struggle for justice, he has a cosmic companionship.

Fifty years ago today, on August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke to over 200,000 followers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  His speech changed the world. 

Congressman John Lewis also spoke that day and said, "Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations."  

The following video has excerpts from his speech.  The text of the full speech is printed below.

I Have a Dream

by Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.  (If you can't see the rest of the speech, please click on the tiny "Read More" link below.)


In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

        Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Patriotic Moms everywhere are concerned about our country.  
We care deeply about America and the legacy of liberty we leave for our children.  

Many are asking, “What can I do?  How can I make a difference?”  Here are some simple, yet powerful, suggestions.


Consider Your Situation

Reflect on the Things You Value Most.  Faith, family, freedom...these are things many of us hold dear.  They guide our thoughts and are reflected in our daily activities.  What are the thing you value most?  What are your priorities?

As mothers, I believe one of our first priorities is to nurture our children.  I agree with Ronald Reagan who said, “The family has always been the cornerstone of American society. Our families nurture, preserve, and pass on to each succeeding generation the values we share and cherish, values that are the foundation of our freedoms.” 

When we nurture our children well we prepare them to lead happy, purposeful lives and make the world a better place.  If that’s all we do, we have done something of infinite worth.  It’s hard to overestimate the value of a Nelle Reagan or a Sonya Carson.  These were both humble women in difficult circumstances who changed the course of history.  Any mother who gives her best to teaching her children the “values that are the foundation of our freedoms” leaves a precious legacy.  

Some mothers have other opportunities as well.  You may want to improve the quality of your child's education, make your city a better place to live, help teen moms, teach others about the importance of constitutional government, or help elect good leaders.  We each need to look into our hearts and decide what we can and ought to do to make the world better. 

Decades ago, long before we moved to our community, a group of families decided to work with the public school system to create a school that would provide an outstanding education, with a focus on basic skills and an understanding of history.  It took many years of effort, but they succeeded beyond their dreams.  Their service will have a lasting impact on our family and many others.


Think About Your Season in Life.  At each stage of life we have important things to accomplish that may be difficult or impossible to do at any other time.  What is your season?  What are your current opportunities and constraints?  Where should you focus now?

I recently received a letter from my 19-year-old son.  He asked me to give my best efforts to mothering his younger brother (our youngest child).  He reminded me that I will have all the rest of my life to pursue other interests, but we only have a year before this young son leaves home.  When he added, “Like me.  :),”  his words brought tears to my eyes.  He’s doing exactly what we want him to do, but we really miss him.  I can’t go back and do things for him now that should have been done while he was at home.  Each season is unique.


Assess What You Have to Offer.  What are your talents, resources, and abilities?  Are you a willing worker?  A persuasive speaker?  A cheerful teacher?  Make a list of your gifts, character traits, skills, habits and other things you bring to the table that can help move your cause forward.

Include unique talents and abilities.  One influential leader I know was famous for her home-made chocolates.  With fabulous flavors, fun packaging, and thoughtful notes, this leader created many thoughtful gifts.  Her culinary efforts were an important part of her superb team-building skills. 


Review Your Circle of Influence.  Stephen Covey taught that we each have a circle of concern (consisting of all the things we want to be able to influence) and a circle of influence (consisting of the things we really can influence)  The paradox is that the more we focus on our circle of concern, the less influence we have.  On the other hand, the more we work within our circle of influence, the larger it grows, and the bigger the impact we can have on our circle of concern.  Don't worry if your circle of influence is small at first.  It will grow.


Decide If You Can Accomplish More Working on Your Own or With Others.   If you're able to accomplish more working with others, identify who you know (or could meet) who has the most influence in the area(s) you are most interested in.  Contact them and offer to help.  Ask them how you can best support the cause.  Enlist the help of like-minded friends. 


Set Goals 

After you’ve taken time to carefully consider your  situation, use the information and insights you've gleaned to prayerfully set your goals.  Ask yourself, "What do I want to have happen?"  Write down what you want to accomplish.  Be specific.  Set measurable targets.  Review your goals often.  Refine them as needed.  This step gives you clearer vision, purpose, focus, and commitment.

Be sure to pray for God's guidance and help with your efforts.  Throughout our history, miracles have happened when ordinary people did their best and relied on God to help them when their own efforts were not enough.  


Create a Plan 

Your plan is your carefully-crafted, step-by-step map, that guides you from where you are to where you want to be.  It gives direction, commitment, and energy to your efforts.

The plan is where you pull everything together.  

• Give your plan a meaningful title.  
• Describe your purpose and values.
• Explain your goals.
• Create a timeline of measurable milestones.
• List the specific tasks you need to complete to reach the milestones, dividing them into easy-to-manage chunks.
• Document key information about schedule, resources, and budget.  

Implement Your Plan

Each week review your plan and prepare to meet your milestones.  

• Set goals for the week.  
• Set aside time on your calendar to complete the tasks.
• Each evening evaluate your day and plan the next day, listing specific tasks you will work on.
• Coordinate with family and team members as needed 

Record and Evaluate Your Efforts  

Keep a journal.  Keep a record of your efforts -- what you did and what the results were.  Write down and learn from your successes and failures.  Review your journal regularly.  Great people throughout history have tended to keep a journal.  Many believe the insight and refinement of thought they gained from writing in a journal was the secret of their success. 

Making a difference is a lifelong effort, but as you consider your situation, set goals, create and implement a plan, then evaluate your efforts, you will grow in your ability and influence, and leave a meaningful legacy for those you love!

President Obama has said that his health care law largely doesn’t impact anyone who already has coverage. Tell that to all the people who are being dropped from their health plans.

UPS made a news splash yesterday when it announced it is dropping coverage for spouses of employees if they are offered coverage through their own employers. The delivery company expects to remove 15,000 working spouses from its health coverage next year, saving the company about $60 million a year.

And UPS isn’t the only one. Dropping spousal coverage has become a trend among employers due to continually rising health care costs. Obamacare’s wide variety of benefit and coverage mandates combined with new fees, taxes, and penalties of course all increase the cost of coverage, intensifying the trend. The University of Virginia made a similar announcement yesterday.

According to a new survey by consultants Towers Watson, in 2013, 4 percent of surveyed employers excluded working spouses from coverage and another 8 percent plan to do so in 2014.

There’s no ambiguity here. UPS was clear that Obamacare played a large role in its decision to change its plan structure:

“[T]he ACA has mandated several changes that have been impacting the cost of coverage for UPS employees since its implementation. These include:

• Coverage for dependent children up to age; regardless of whether they are enrolled in school, are married, or (beginning 2014) have coverage available from their own employer;
• Removal of lifetime and annual benefit limits;
• Fees for comparative effectiveness research; and
• Fees to help fund the public exchanges.

We are making these changes to, in part, offset cost increases due to the ACA and so that healthcare premiums remain the same for most of our people.” (Page 18 of the memo).

And many more changes to employer-sponsored insurance are likely to come in the near future. According to the Towers Watson survey, when asked how they thought plans would change by 2018—the year that Obamacare’s “Cadillac” tax on high-cost plans takes effect--92 percent of employers said plans would be different, with 47 percent saying they anticipated significant or transformative change.

Do you like your health care plan? Sorry. With Obamacare in effect, costs are going up and plans are changing. If lawmakers would defund this unworkable law, we could focus on health care reform that puts people in charge of the type of health coverage they want.

The defenders of Obamacare are at it again.  

Remember all the lies they told to get Obamacare passed?  They are using the same strategy now.  

Obamacare advocates are twisting the facts to implement a law that many consider "unfair, unaffordable, and highly unpopular."  

Obamacare is also "so unworkable that the Administration has itself admitted it cannot manage to implement major portions on time."

The two most common myths are:

1. Congress cannot defund Obamacare.

2. Obamacare opponents are trying to shut down the government.

Neither is true.  Here's why...

Do you ever take time to reflect on the faith of our Founding Fathers and the price they paid to create a lasting legacy of liberty?

Many of our Founding Fathers and Mothers, were people of deep faith.  Their love of God and their desire to please Him gave them the strength and courage they needed to pay the nearly impossible price to establish freedom in America.

In this video, Mike Huckabee and David Barton discuss the Founding Fathers and their faith.

"If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on Earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. 

"Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth. 

"The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price.

"It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. 

"We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. 

"So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope."

Read More:  President Reagan's First Inaugural Address

Common Core standards are cause for concern for many reasons.  

They take power the Constitution gives to state and local government and give it to the federal government.  

Parents will continue to pay for the education of their children through tax dollars, but they will no longer be able to give input on the curriculum.  

Curriculum will now be focused on changing beliefs and values rather than on education itself.  

And much more...

How do you feel about defunding Obamacare?

A new poll of American voters shows a majority—57 percent—support defunding this unfair, unaffordable, unworkable law.

Heritage Action for America and Basswood Research asked voters in 10 different congressional districts for their views on Obamacare, and respondents were decidedly against the law. Six of these House districts are represented by Republicans and four by Democrats, but across the board, an overwhelming 77 percent of voters favored either a slowdown in implementation or outright repeal.

They also indicated that political scare tactics haven’t made them shy away from these opinions.

Defunding Obamacare would protect millions of Americans from losing their current health insurance. It would prevent executive enforcement of Obamacare’s mandates, regulations, and tax increases. And time is growing short, because the Obamacare insurance exchanges are set to open on October 1.

Once the exchanges open and the creaky wheels of Obamacare start turning, it will do even more harm to our wallets, our health care, and our economy. Time is of the essence, as Heritage expert Chris Jacobs reminds us:

The list of Obamacare’s failures grows by the day. It is not that portions of the law are unworkable—the entire law is unworkable. Absent the law’s complete repeal, only full defunding would ensure that the American people are not subjected to any of these destructive policies.

Obamacare has already had devastating effects on workers. Heritage President Jim DeMint points out that “You can’t repeal it once the private insurance market dries up, once employers drop their plans. There’s nowhere to go but a single-payer system, and Harry Reid has already said that.”

Learn more about defunding Obamacare--join DeMint and others at one of Heritage Action’s town halls starting next Monday.

Did you know that pictures from your smartphone can put your children at risk?  

When you upload or email pictures taken on your smartphone, you may give criminals just what they need to stalk your children.

This is not new information, but many are not yet aware of the danger.  

Here is an important 4 minute reminder.

Read More:  What You Can Do to Help Keep Your Children Safe

The Teen Choice Awards honors the year's biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, and more.  Teen viewers vote on the winners.

 Ashton Kutcher's acceptance speech at the Teen Choice Awards 2013 included some great insights for us and our kids... 

1)  Opportunities look a lot like work.
2)  Being really smart, thoughtful, and generous are sexy.
3)  You can build your own life.

No one is talking about depression, but we need to be.  

It's a serious problem for many, yet it's taboo to talk about. 

For a long time, Kevin Breel felt like he had been living two different lives.  He was a friend, a son, a brother, a stand up comedian, and a teenager.  He was also captain of his basketball team, the drama and theater student of the year, the English student of the year, someone on the honor roll, and a kid who went to every party.

He was also a person who struggled intensely with depression - every day.  

He says that real depression isn't being sad when something goes wrong.  Real depression is being sad when everything in your life is going right.  

In this video Kevin tells his story and talks about his struggle with suicide.  He explains why we will only find answers when we stop being afraid to ask questions.  He believes true strength will come when we accept our weaknesses and stand strong together.

One of the great joys of being a parent is introducing our children to the many things that bring meaning, purpose, and beauty to our lives.

Some we are able to share spontaneously, and others need to be planned.

The beginning of a new school year is a good time to list the things we want to share with our children during the upcoming months.  Then we can prioritize and calendar them.  

Of course we will have to adapt the calendar to our busy lives, but  having a list and calendar can help us take time for the things we really care about.  By the end of the year, we will have created many meaningful, memorable, life-enriching experiences together. 

Wishing you an awesome new year!

C. S. Lewis saw it coming.

The brilliant writer, author of Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia, delivered a series of lectures 70 years ago that were later compiled in a short book called The Abolition of Man: How Education Develops Man's Sense of Morality.

In it he predicted the disastrous consequences of entering into a world where children are educated without reference to any transcendent, objective code of morality and ethics.

We see some of those consequences in today's headlines -- rampant cheating among the best and brightest at an Ivy League college; horrific bullying by mere children; political leaders seeking to re-gain public trust while repeatedly violating what would once have been considered basic standards of decency.

These are just some of the consequences of replacing the teaching of simple standards of right and wrong with subjectivity, political correctness and moral relativism, a process that began in America two generations ago. This lack of teaching on virtue and character is now reinforced by our popular culture.

Yet as a people we are conflicted, unsettled -- somehow, as our culture devolves into degeneracy, we are beginning to recognize a problem. We are confused and unhappy with the results.

As Lewis put it, "And all the time -- such is the tragi-comedy of our situation -- we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible.... We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."

Lewis, a Christian apologist, understood that the natural law -- which gave us universally recognized virtues like justice, honesty and mercy -- was derived from the Bible.

In America, biblical morality was accepted as central to educating the whole person. That is what Noah Webster, author of our Dictionary and founder of a historic university, meant when he wrote "Education is useless without the Bible."

An understanding of natural law that flows from our Creator is our birthright as Americans. It is what our Founders meant when they appealed to "the laws of nature and nature's God" to declare our independence, and when they declared that our rights were "endowed by our Creator."

Our future as a free people depends on rediscovering these truths and restoring them to the elementary, secondary and higher education classrooms of America -- quickly.

“Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand.  The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our people, in a greater measure, than they have it now, they may change their rulers, and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.” ~John Adams


"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."  ~Benjamin Franklin


"The foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; ...the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained."  ~George Washington 


“The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.”  ~Noah Webster 


“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”  ~Samuel Adams


“‘Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government.”  ~George Washington


“Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.”  ~John Adams


“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.”  ~Joseph Story


"Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics."  ~John Adams 


“Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.”  ~Thomas Paine 


“We may look up to armies for defense, but virtue is our best security. It is not possible that any state should long remain free, where virtue is not supremely honored.”  ~Samuel Adams 


“Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks-no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea, if there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.”  ~James Madison


"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  ~John Adams


“If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.”  ~Samuel Adams


“That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.” ~Thomas Jefferson


“It is … [the citizens] choice, and depends upon their conduct, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptible and miserable as a Nation. This is the time of their political probation; this is the moment when the eyes of the World are turned upon them.”  ~George Washington

Learn More

• Religion is Essential for Freedom  (Clayton Christensen - 1:39)
• What Was the American Founders' View of Human Nature?
• The Importance of Religion in America  (Ronald Reagan - 15:17)
• Our Precious Heritage of Religious Freedom

​

"Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters."  
~Samuel Adams


"Good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous." 
~George Washington


“In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate -- look to his character. . . . When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor; he betrays the interest of his country.” ~Noah Webster 


"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."  ~John Quincy Adams


Character is power.  ~Booker T. Washington



"God grant that men of principle shall be our principal men."  ~Thomas Jefferson


"In a president, character is everything. A president doesn't have to be brilliant... He doesn't have to be clever; you can hire clever... You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you can't buy courage and decency, you can't rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him."  ~Peggy Noonan

"One Nation Under God.

"This simple phrase, added to the pledge of allegiance over 50 years ago has been the source of unbelievable debate and heated controversy. Likewise, the phrase 'In God We Trust' on our currency has been targeted and continues to be attacked as improper and politically incorrect...

"As this debate continues, some so called experts have implied or concluded that our Founding Fathers and Patriots were not religious. These secular champions, in an effort to further their own causes, have even painted these great men and women from our history as being devoid of religious passions or even a belief in God. This is a part of their strategy to remove any discussion of God from the public forum.

"These men and women were passionately religious and saw the hand of God all around them. To God they gave Thanks for His Hand in the founding of this great nation. To Him, according to their own testimony they turned for wisdom and strength when life and liberty hung in the balance." 

 ~Jon McNaughton 

As we face serious challenges in our day, we too can find inner peace and strength by recognizing the hand of God in our lives, giving Him thanks, and seeking the help only He can give. 

"The president pushed this down the throats of not just Republicans, but the American people, and I think a lot of people resent it now and more and more are going to resent it as they lose their health insurance."

                           ~Senator Jim DeMint

Sen. Ted Cruz is challenging House and Senate members to “stand up for principle” with his defund Obamacare bill — and he’s refusing to stay quiet until they do.

With the continuing resolution expiration date only 60 days away, Cruz thinks Congress has just enough time to stop U.S. tax dollars from feeding the Obamacare beast.

“Under no circumstances will I vote for a continuing resolution that funds even one single penny of Obamacare,” Cruz told Glenn Beck on TheBlaze radio show.... He urged Republicans to stand together in support of defunding, despite the President’s scare tactics.

“Why is President Obama threatening and trying to shut down the federal government?” Cruz said. “In order to force Obamacare down the people’s throats?”

Cruz [spoke] at Heritage’s Bloggers Briefing on Tuesday... about why a complete defunding of Obamacare is crucial and why he’s putting pressure on Congress to make sure it happens.

Representative Jim Bridenstine, a conservative from Oklahoma [spoke] about digital communications and the importance of grassroots efforts. Despite being a freshman, Bridenstine finished second in the House Republican Digital Challenge this year.