Chuck Fuller: Building an enduring foundation for success through individual action

April 8th, 2023

From the Desk of Chuck Fuller: 

Passover and Easter — the celebrations of life and liberty. As we emerge from the doldrums of winter to a delightful spring, we experience a collective hope brought by the transformation of the world around us.

Each new day brings new a choice of how we view the world, and how to engage.

Though it’s not a daily exercise to ponder our country’s condition, I notice my conversations with friends and family drifting there more often. Maybe yours do, too.

People point to different causes, but they always diagnose the same effects: Our culture is very broken.

For a long time, it was just a foreboding feeling, like when the wind picks up and the daylight dims. But last week, a Wall Street Journal poll put some numbers behind the feeling.

The poll listed several core American values and asked respondents whether those values are very important to them. The paper asked the same questions in 1998. Here’s how the responses changed over the past 25 years.

Percentage who say these values are “very important” to them:

• Patriotism: 70% to 38% (dropped 32 percentage points)
• Religion: 62% to 39% (dropped 23 percentage points)
• Having children: 59% to 30% (dropped 29 percentage points)
• Community involvement: 47% to 27% (dropped 20 percentage points)
• Money: 31% to 43% (rose 12 percentage points)

Axios cofounder Mike Allen chose this headline: “Rot of nation’s core values quantified by a single poll.”

Rot.

***
I submit to you this Easter weekend my thoughts on the problem and the path forward, with humility and acknowledging I’m but one of many with an opinion.

Adverse circumstances don’t crush us, inadequate foundations do. Our national foundations were set and maintained by individuals, and a return to them starts with individual action.

What are America’s foundations?

Until very recently, love of God, family, country, and community defined our national character. Everything orbited those core mores.

We worked hard to provide for our families. We respected our neighbors because “love thy neighbor,” but also because we knew they held our values, too.

America has moved from a nation founded on hope and freedom to one fiercely dedicated to anger and fear. In our lifetimes, we moved from the Reagan revolution and the “shining city on a hill” to 140-character word assassinations on social media and civil unrest at our nation’s Capital.

Clearly, last generation’s core values no longer define our national character. So, what do we do?

Some might say America has long needed a different set of defining values. I respectfully disagree. In my opinion – again, humbly submitted – our culture would benefit from a return to the values we held for 200 years. American endurance requires enduring foundations, not changing foundations.

Tocqueville told us, “The real strength of the American democracy is to be found not in favorable circumstances, not even in good laws, but instead in America’s mores — that is, in moral beliefs and customs.”

So how do we return to our core values? Those values began with individuals, and they will or won’t endure because of individuals.

A cultural change begins with “I,” not “they.”

When birds in a flock change direction, they don’t follow a leader in a traditional sense. A few in the flock, any few, see a need to change direction, maybe to chase food or avoid predators. One begun, that motion moves through the flock like a wave of high kicks in a chorus line.

So, it is with our national identity. All changes start with a few, any few.

President Reagan concluded his final speech as President by remarking on his pride in the great resurgence of patriotism during his time in office. But he warned that this new patriotism “won’t count for much, and it won’t last unless it’s grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge.”

“Our spirit is back,” Reagan said, “but we haven’t reinstitutionalized it. We’ve got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom—freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection.”

That’s the foundation we need to return to. The best path for returning to that foundation is to simply live by it ourselves – to respectfully display it to others, like our families, coworkers, and friends.

As concerned as I am for America, I remain hopeful. Many people are building their houses on a firm foundation. In researching this missive, I came across an excellent discussion of politics in Jesus’ time published by the “He Gets Us” ad campaign.

***
Jesus was fed up with politics, too.

In Jesus’ time, communities were deeply divided by bitter differences in religious beliefs, political positions, income inequality, legal status, and ethnic differences. Sound familiar?

Jesus lived in the middle of a culture war, too. And though the political systems were different (not exactly a representative democracy), the greed, hypocrisy, and oppression different groups used to get their way were very similar.

Let’s set the scene.

Jesus was born at the height of the Roman Empire’s power. They’d conquered most of the known world, and Israel was no exception. Unlike previous empires that would try to destroy cultures by displacing conquered peoples’ leaders, the Romans didn’t force people to change their religion or customs as long as they kept their obligations to the empire. Rome would install a client king (a puppet government) and exact tribute (cash) in lots of different ways. Families were charged taxes per person—farmers on crops, fishermen on catches, and travelers were charged fees to use the roads. This was in addition to local business and religious taxes charged by priests.

In Israel, political and religious factions were one and the same. Back then, it was Pharisees and Sadducees. Today, we have conservatives and liberals.

The Pharisees were the most religiously conservative leaders. They had the most influence among the common working poor, who were the majority. They believed that a king would come one day to conquer Rome with violence and free their nation. Some preyed upon a mostly illiterate population by adding extra rules and requirements that were designed to force the working poor into a posture of subjugation.

The Sadducees were wealthy aristocrats who had a vested financial interest in Roman rule. They were in charge of the temple, and they didn’t believe any savior king was coming. They made themselves wealthy by exacting unfair taxes and fees from the labor of their own people and by contriving money-making schemes that forced the poor to pay exorbitant prices to participate in temple sacrifice—a critical part of their religion.

There were Zealot groups who hid in the hills and violently resisted Roman occupation, and then there were the Samaritans, often oppressed and marginalized because of their racial and ethnic identities.

And so, the common farmer, fisherman, or craftsman’s family lived through a highly volatile political period. Overbearing religious leaders who despised and oppressed them, wealthy elites who ripped them off, racial and ethnic tension with neighbors, and sporadic violent outbreaks between an oppressive occupying army.

So where was Jesus in all of this? Did he align with the religious elites? With the wealthy and powerful? Or did he start an uprising to overthrow them?

None of the above.

He went from town to town, offering hope, new life, and modeling a different way to live and to change the world. Instead of pursuing power, money, or religious authority, he shared a loving and sacrificially generous way of living. He chose not to go along with the schemes others used to impact the world. Instead, he championed a better way.

And so, each of these political groups saw him as a threat. The Pharisees recognized his movement as an affront to their authority—exposing the hypocrisy of their practices. The Sadducees saw Jesus as a threat to their power and wealth because he exposed their money-making schemes. The Zealots violently rejected one of the essential themes of Jesus’ movement: love your enemy.

In the end, it took all three of these groups to have him killed. A Zealot (Judas) betrayed his location to those seeking to arrest him, the Sadducees brought him before the Romans to be executed, and when the Romans couldn’t find a crime committed, the Pharisees rallied the people to force Rome’s hand.

Isn’t it funny how political foes can come together to destroy a common enemy that threatens their designs? But in spite of their best efforts, his execution was only the beginning of a movement that continues to impact the world thousands of years later. Jesus’ movement was so impactful because he actively resisted and rejected participating in culture-war politics.

***
We read in Philippians, “Only let your conduct be worthy…”

So, I’ll end today where I began: Adverse circumstances don’t crush us, inadequate foundations do. We must build and maintain foundations in our personal lives, businesses, and government for America to endure. This begins with us as individuals – at the dinner table, in our staff meetings, and in our communities.

The next time you think about what you can do to impact America, it begins with “me.” Take a few minutes today to pause and think about it. Everyone’s engagement matters.

Respectfully yours,
Chuck Fuller

In respectful tribute to my friend Bob Ingram, whose life stands as a lesson in how to set core values and live by them. Bob had relationships with presidents and business titans, but all who interacted with him – no matter their life’s station – received the same attention and treatment. Truly a man after God’s own heart. I miss you. In loving memory…