Optimus Template

Thus, a nation will enjoy longevity if it can formulate and maintain a consensus on values rooted in a faith perspective. The public life of such a nation will be comprised of individuals of disciplined character acting in a virtuous manner. In fact, this was the founder’s vision of what America should be.

Today, the exclusion of God from the character building dynamic inherently disorders the process and leads to the decline of public virtue. As the American character is weakened, so too is the nation.

Many will correctly point out that there are numerous men and women who have developed good character and have been good citizens without professing a faith in God. However, faith in God is not just personally relevant. As we have seen, faith in God was to manifest a civil expression, as well. It is religion, with its unique ability to tip the balance toward the spiritual dimension, that provides society's enduring civil principles, morality and law.

Whereas a person may not believe in God, which is the constitutional right of any citizen, however, adherence to civil principles, the rule of law, and public morality is absolutely necessary for good character and good citizenship. If the State discounts transcendent principles as the basis of the republic, we lose the foundation of a stable and enduring society.

Making Good Character Happen

Good character doesn’t happen automatically; it isn’t fully manifested at birth or in childhood, adolescence or even, necessarily, in adulthood. Character isn’t a mantle we put on. It is manifested through habit, or pattern of behavior and thinking that is achieved over years. It is bolstered by self-discipline and by directing one’s self toward the nobler of motivations. It is a trait that is developed by sustained effort. The development of character is the development of the unique individual identity and personality within dynamic relationships with others.

If we observe the way of nature, we can witness that all things must develop, must grow in a process of three stages. Consider the Apple tree, it goes through a formation stage from seedling to sapling, a growth stage of extending its root system and building its trunk, limbs and leaves. Finally, its completion stage from which emerges the fruit, bearing the seed of the next generation of trees.

Whereas, all things grow automatically toward maturity under the control of nature, human growth toward maturity is an altogether unique process reflecting the composite, inner and outer structure of the human.

Humans must mature physically and spiritually. In this period of growth, each person grows physically as a matter of course, gathering and consuming certain nutrients that facilitate physical maturation.

In order to grow spiritually, one also needs nutrients, but of a different essence; a spiritual one. To mature spiritually requires focused and consistent effort. Unlike growth in nature, which is automatic, humans must fulfill a vital role in spiritual growth. We must consciously make the choice to implement spiritual principles in our behavior.

The Three Stages of Character Development

The First Stage: The Child Stage

Every child is born into a complete state of dependency. The child cannot do anything for themselves. They must be completely embraced into the environment of unconditional love. A new-born child is a sponge ready to lap up all the love that it should be given by mother, father, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters. A baby is totally self-absorbed, but, not to worry ... This is the one time in life that one should be a sponge and is in no way obligated to respond in kind. It's the self-absorbed 40 year olds that are the real problem. They are a bit overdue in that regard.

The Bible says in I John 4:19 that we are able to love because “first God loved us.” Character development begins by, first, receiving the unconditional love of committed parents and extended family. That is why two parents of matured character are so vital to provide the necessary environment for the initial emotional, spiritual and mental development of the child. Self-absorbed individuals find it hard to rise to the challenge of a 24/7 vigilance for the life of another. Being a parent is not about you, it is completely about the child.

From this perspective, it is not hard to imagine the devastating impact of a 38.5% out of wedlock birthrate. David Popenoe, Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University comments, “Few propositions have more empirical support in the social sciences than this one: Compared to all other family forms, families headed by married, biological parents are best for children.”

The Second Stage: Adolescence

But a child can’t be loved into maturity. God creates our character but each individual must play a role in the shaping and maturing of their own character. This next stage entails the training of children. The meaning of "training" is to challenge them to apply moral standards to their conduct.

The natural laboratory for character development is the family. The family is the schoolroom of love. It is where children begin to discover how to integrate into the greater whole of the family. They have to take on new principles to guide their behavior in that the immature ways of selfishness will no longer fly in the family.

British author Samuel Smiles from his 1871 book, Character said, “Home is the first and most important school of character. It is there that every human being receives his best moral training, or his worst; for it is there that he imbibes those principles of conduct which endure through manhood, and cease only with life.”

The second schoolroom is the church. It is within a religious community that one develops a life of faith and knowledge of the principles of God.

The third schoolroom is the classroom at school. It is vital that public education of youth embrace a balanced perspective of character development; one that recognizes the important need of transcendent principles. Many parents today are opting for home schooling because they observe that public schools have their hands tied in effectively promoting the values that build good character. In many cases, school policies and curriculum actually challenge the validity of those values to the point of even casting aspersions on parents who would exercise those values at home.

As we mentioned in presentation two, the philosophy of education in America had radically changed course by the middle of the 20th century, largely due to the influence of John Dewey. The goal to educate the inner person with transcendent principles was not only abandoned but was deemed invalid and inappropriate for the public square. Espousing transcendent principles in the public school since that time has been seen as akin to selling crack.

Today, most public high schools resemble a penal institution under lock-down conditions ... and that's the good news. The bad news is that all the security measures in the world will not suffice to compensate for a society that formally denies its religious heritage. The list of tragedies happening "everyday in America" is not a static list of happenings "one" day in America, but are happening everyday, including today, this day ... the very day you are reading this now.

The Third Stage: Not quite Adults-not really children. DANGER

Let's not beat around the bush. This is the stage where young men and young women become aware of each other and are attracted. This is the most critical stage for good character because this will be the stage where the principle of abstinence before marriage will be most vitally needed and strongly challenged.

Young people, at this stage, become cognizant of sexual desire and, in today's world, that desire can be readily satisfied. It is at this moment that they must be given a positive moral justification for postponing the fulfillment of this desire. The popular culture that envelopes them will not only be encouraging them to be sexually active, it will even ridicule and make them feel abnormal if they aren't.

Often efforts to convince young people to postpone sexual gratification lean toward the negative and attempt to instill fear about the dire consequences of unwanted pregnancy and dreaded diseases. Not that these are unfounded, and certainly they do represent some of the reasons to remain abstinent; but ultimately, there is a most positive reason to remain abstinent before marriage. It is the path toward greatest love, enduring commitment and lasting happiness.

When society embraces the idea of premarital abstinence, it allows young men and women the needed space to explore the deeper and more meaningful basis for relating. It helps to promote an environment where young men and women can engage in well-rounded encounters with the opposite sex. When premarital sex is not the expectation, young men and women actually learn to talk and listen to each other forming positive relationships of trust. All woman become sister and friend; all men become brother and companion, forming a deeper bond, a sense of commonality and a basis for mutually respecting all members of the opposite sex. Women learn to "like" men; men learn to "like" women.

It's not unrelated that these are also the skills and environment needed to form a lasting marriage and stable family. Nor is it unrelated that as the popular culture increasingly promotes the false image of young men and women as, primarily, potential sex partners; we see the decline of relationships of lasting commitment.

The "expansive energy" brought to an advancing civilization is not the energy of sexual repression as Freud had theorized. It is, in fact, the greater dynamic unleashed when men and women form trusting relationships of love around mutual interests. This is the true engine of advancing culture, otherwise known as the family.

Co-Creators with God

Unlike all other creatures under the strict control of nature, humans must play a vital role in the process of spiritual maturity; the shaping and completing of the character. It is as if God were sharing the role of creator with each person. Each person, in partnership with God, takes up the task of creating the self. By sharing this role with us, and it being successfully carried out, we are able to take on the Creator's own qualities, that is, the quality of love, of freedom, of creativity. The appearance of these qualities within the character becomes the evidence of spiritual growth and that good character is being successfully molded.

Ultimately character development means that unique element, that divine spark, the "image" of God is emerging. Achieving maturity, then, is to accomplish an expanded capacity to give and receive love. This only happens by the decision to act; the will to practice altruism, i.e. living for the sake of others. In this single regard, the inner and outer, the mind and body, find a common base.

The mind can conceive of the highest ideals of altruism, while the body has the design to relate to those ideals by action. A harmonized mind and body, engaged in altruism, stands as the visible image of God. Such a state has been characterized by a wide range of religions as a holy state of being that brings God’s spirit, whose essence is love, within the individual, as a temple or the container of God’s love.