Faith and Freedom

As America approaches her 250th birthday, she is also approaching a fork in the road. The choice before us is moral and boils down to two terms: liberty or social justice? We cannot have both. This book, written by a Swedish immigrant, lays out the moral case for returning America to the Christian, libertarian values that the Founding Fathers wrote into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. These values guarantee liberty and opportunity, but they also require responsible citizenship in return. In understanding the latter, we can resurrect the former. By contrast, the failure to understand responsible citizenship and its critical role in defending liberty opens the door for America to irrevocably change character. Our country is already on the cusp of becoming a full-fledged egalitarian welfare state, defined not by liberty, but by the endless pursuit of social justice. As this book explains, there is a path back to freedom, one illuminated by faith, paved with practical, sensible policy reforms and traveled by people ready to exercise responsible citizenship.

Sven R. Larson is a political economist, public-policy scholar, and the author of several books, including The Rise of Big Government: How Egalitarianism Conquered America (2018). His research covers economic policy, the welfare state, and the bridge between political values and practical policy. He regularly publishes in peer-reviewed journals and writes for conservative think tanks.