Faith and Freedom: Reclaiming America's Christian Roots | 4.20.25

Summary

Morning Wire Podcast Summary: "Faith and Freedom: Reclaiming America's Christian Roots" | Episode 4.20.25

Release Date: April 20, 2025

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Introduction

In the April 20th Easter edition of Morning Wire, hosts John Bickley and Georgia Howe delve into the renewed focus on faith, particularly Christianity, in American public life. They explore the intersection of religion and politics amidst increasing distrust in mainstream media. The episode features an in-depth conversation with Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, discussing the reclamation of America's Christian roots and the pivotal role of faith in shaping national values.

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The Foundation of the United States: A Christian Outlook

Key Discussion Points: Kevin Roberts emphasizes the indispensable role of Christianity in the founding of the United States, acknowledging the contributions of other faiths while underscoring the predominantly Christian worldview that shaped the nation’s ideology and philosophy.

Notable Quote:

“We wouldn't have the United States without Christianity. ... the worldview that created the ideology, the philosophy which undergirded the founding of the United States was explicitly Christian.”
— Kevin Roberts [00:51]

Insights: Roberts argues that revitalizing Christian values is essential for the rejuvenation of American institutions in the 21st century. He highlights the importance of recognizing religious pluralism while reaffirming Christianity's foundational influence.

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Core Values in Need of Revitalization: Understanding Freedom

Key Discussion Points: Roberts discusses the shifting perception of freedom in the United States, advocating for a return to the founding notion of freedom as a moral obligation to the community rather than mere individual liberty.

Notable Quote:

“From the understanding of freedom that most Americans understood at our founding... freedom is the right to do what we ought, which confers a moral obligation to community.”
— Kevin Roberts [01:52]

Insights: He critiques the modern reinterpretation of freedom as unrestricted personal liberty, which he believes has led to societal fragmentation. Roberts calls for a balance where freedom includes responsibilities towards others, fostering a healthier civil society.

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Balancing Religious Freedom and Avoiding Legalism

Key Discussion Points: The conversation addresses the potential tension between promoting Judeo-Christian values and maintaining religious liberty without imposing legalistic restrictions. Roberts emphasizes the protection of religious freedoms without endorsing favoritism toward any particular faith.

Notable Quote:

“The ideology that has run roughshod over religious liberty is the radical left. ... the conservative justices on the Supreme Court have been just as zealous in protecting that of non-Christians as they are of Christians.”
— Kevin Roberts [03:26]

Insights: Roberts reassures that conservative leadership prioritizes religious liberty, ensuring that laws do not unfairly restrict or favor any religious group. He advocates for active participation in religious communities to strengthen societal institutions.

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Misuse of the FACE Act Under the Biden Administration

Key Discussion Points: Roberts criticizes the Biden administration's application of the FACE Act to target pro-life activists peacefully protesting outside abortion clinics, citing it as a violation of religious freedom.

Notable Quote:

“Under the Biden administration, the FACE act was used to run roughshod over the right of pro lifers to just be present peacefully at a safe distance outside abortion clinics.”
— Kevin Roberts [07:53]

Insights: He shares the case of Mark Hauck, who was unjustly arrested under the FACE Act for peaceful presence, highlighting the administration's overreach. Roberts is optimistic about reforms under President Donald Trump, who he believes respects free speech and religious liberties.

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The United States' Role in Promoting Global Religious Freedom

Key Discussion Points: Roberts outlines how the U.S. can lead globally in safeguarding religious freedom, particularly for Christians in the Middle East and expanding religious liberties in Africa.

Notable Quotes:

“The only country where we've seen an increase in the Christian population is in Israel. And there's a reason for that, because the Israeli government protects religious liberty.”
— Kevin Roberts [10:44]

“Africa is the real hope there... the convergence of those two trends is something that probably will expand beyond their continent.”
— Kevin Roberts [12:16]

Insights: He advocates using presidential influence to spotlight the struggles of Christians abroad and ensuring that U.S. foreign aid supports religious liberty initiatives. Roberts is particularly hopeful about the growth of Christian communities in Africa and their potential to influence global religious policies.

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Trends in Catholicism Among Younger Generations

Key Discussion Points: Roberts observes a nuanced trend in Catholicism, noting a decline among older generations but a resurgence of interest among younger individuals seeking traditional liturgy and community belonging.

Notable Quote:

“We're seeing this... whereas younger Americans are saying ... they're looking for belonging. They're looking for meaning.”
— Kevin Roberts [13:23]

Insights: He highlights the growing preference among millennials and Gen Z for Catholic parishes with traditional liturgy, suggesting a broader search for identity and purpose. This trend signifies a potential strengthening of faith-based communities and a decrease in reliance on federal governance.

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with Roberts reaffirming his confidence in a balanced approach to religious liberty under conservative leadership, dismissing concerns about favoritism towards Christianity. He expresses optimism for America's future, where religious institutions play a pivotal role in sustaining foundational values and reducing governmental overreach.

Notable Quote:

“This is really hopeful for the future of America because it's going to make the federal government a lot less important.”
— Kevin Roberts [14:42]

Final Remarks: John Bickley and Georgia Howe thank Kevin Roberts for his insightful discussion, wrapping up the special Easter edition of Morning Wire with a call to embrace and revitalize America's Christian roots to foster a more cohesive and morally grounded society.

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This summary encapsulates the key themes and discussions from the "Faith and Freedom: Reclaiming America's Christian Roots" episode of Morning Wire, providing a comprehensive overview for those who have not listened to the full podcast.

Transcript

[John Bickley]

The prominence of faith in public life in the US Particularly the Christian faith, is coming under renewed focus. This comes as the new administration makes moves to roll back what conservatives say has been an attack on Christianity and an abuse of the notion of the separation of church and state.

[Georgia Howe]

In this Easter Sunday episode, we talk with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts about the role of the church and faith in public life and why he believes it's time to re embrace the nation's Christian values. I'm Daily WY Editor in Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Sunday, April 20th, and this is an Easter edition of Morning Wire. Joining us to discuss the role faith, and particularly Christianity, plays in public life here in the US Is Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation. First of all, thank you so much for joining us.

[Kevin Roberts]

Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[Georgia Howe]

So it's Easter weekend. You recently published an op ed arguing that the US Is a Christian nation at its core and that we should embrace this fact. I want to talk to you about that premise first. How important is it that our founding was based on Christian values?

[Kevin Roberts]

Well, 100%. We wouldn't have the United States without Christianity. Which is not to say that we ought to be dismissive toward the wonderful and unique religious pluralism we have in the United States. To put a fine point on that, obviously people of other faiths, particularly those who are Jewish, were also vital to the American founding, and they're vital to the United States today. But the worldview that created the ideology, the philosophy which undergirded the founding of the United States was explicitly Christian. And I think revitalizing that in the 21st century is essential as we revitalize most of the institutions in the United States.

[Georgia Howe]

And what are some of those values that you believe are core that maybe have deteriorated or need to be revitalized?

[Kevin Roberts]

The one which is profoundly the case and has been for the last two generations is a proper understanding of freedom. From the understanding of freedom that most Americans understood at our founding, they would say that freedom is the right to do what we ought, which confers a moral obligation to community, a moral obligation to other. In other words, not to be overly academic in this explanation, what it leads to is a civil society that is healthy, a civil society that has institutions like schools and professional associations, eventually media, obviously, all, all of which mitigate the differences that Americans have. What has happened, however, over the last two generations is a redefinition of freedom, which is unhealthy, which is the freedom to do whatever the heck we want. Eliminating that and coming to refocus on freedom as what we ought to do gets us to aspire to something greater as Americans. And for some Americans who may not be overtly religious, that's simply the American dream, which is excellent. But for others of us who are explicitly religious and acknowledge and respect the religious pluralism in our country, it really does create a healthier country. Because ultimately, what you're doing is minimizing the role of government, particularly in government, doing things that we as individuals, as families, as communities, should be doing instead.

[Georgia Howe]

Speaking of that, how does that not turn into laws that restrict people? So, for example, maybe sexual moral issues, practically, how do you help encourage a more Judeo Christian view on this in terms of responsibilities without becoming legalistic, with.

[Kevin Roberts]

A zealous, ironclad commitment to religious liberty as exemplified in the law? And let's just be really blunt here. The ideology that has run roughshod over religious liberty is the radical left. We don't have an example in modern American history of those of us on the political right attacking the religious liberty of anyone. In fact, the conservative justices on the Supreme Court have been just as zealous in protecting that of non Christians as they are of Christians. So I have 100% confidence that that will continue to be the case for those of us who are politically conservative. But the second thing is, and in a lot of ways, it is the very thing that allows our lawmakers, our policymakers, to keep this focus on religious liberty, that if we focus on living out whatever our religious tenets are, not just in our individual lives, but very importantly in our communities, that might be Mass attendance for serious Catholics, it may be church attendance for people of other faith, that ultimately what's going to happen is that even people who don't go to church, even people who would say, you know, I'm not explicitly religious, benefit because the institutions in society allow us to air these differences, and ultimately the pluralism that has been present in the United States since our founding will reflourish. And it's going to be something that benefits everyone in society and really helps to sustain freedoms and rights across the board?

[Georgia Howe]

So you're saying that this begins with maximizing religious freedom, making sure we don't curtail those freedoms, thus encouraging more participation in religious activities, more empowerment of the churches. Is that the foundation of this?

[Kevin Roberts]

That's right. And there's an irony there, right? At the very least, a strong correlation between two things. One, the attack on religious liberty, which, for example, we saw under the Biden and Obama administrations, and the decline in Religiosity of Americans broadly defined. So in other words, to the very heart of your point, if we either because we are religious people, revitalize the practice of our beliefs, or if we're not religious, at least acknowledge that according to religious liberty and the pluralism of the country, that is the right of other Americans to do as they see fit, that actually is going to prevent the overreach of government in abrogating those religious liberty freedoms.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, the focus on separation of church and state, this has been much debated obviously over the centuries. And even the source of this, a lot of people think this is in the Constitution. It's not. Do you see the perspective on that changing? Do you see this moving any particular direction in recent decades?

[Kevin Roberts]

Both in my career as a public policy leader and also as an American history professor, I've never encountered a more egregious misunderstanding about any important part of the United States than the separation of church and state. In fact, the whole reason for that, the long jurisprudence on this, until the 20th century, the long custom, was that separation of church and state meant that you kept the state out of running the church's business. And what's happened, as we have seen, the political ascendance of the radical left, which of course aims at undermining religious institutions, is the complete 180 degree turn toward a misunderstanding in which we're saying there can't be any religion even expressed publicly. We're not even talking about in laws or in policymaking. But I, as the president, heritage, according to this mistaking, shouldn't even talk about religion in public. That's the logical consequence of this terrible misunderstanding. And so to your question, I think ultimately what's happening because of the presence of still strong religious institutions and religious leaders of all backgrounds, Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and others, is a revitalization of this. In other words, it's getting back to a proper understanding that if you don't have healthy religion in this country, government and politics will become your religion. And we've lived through over the last generation the bad fruit that that reaps.

[Georgia Howe]

Yeah, that void is certainly filled in rapidly by the government. Now, you mentioned the Biden administration and its handling of religious freedom. A lot of frankly just egregious examples of this. I want to talk about some specific ones. Pro life people and the FACE act, the way the FACE act was used against pro lifers. Can you expand on that? I know you've addressed this in the past and do we see a reversal on that?

[Kevin Roberts]

Yeah, the bad news, and it is bad News, but thankfully now, good news story. The bad news is that under the Biden administration, the Face act was used to run roughshod over the right of pro lifers to just be present peacefully at a safe distance outside abortion clinics. We're not talking about a protest. We're talking about, for example, my friend Mark Hauck of Pennsylvania standing outside peacefully, an abortion clinic, not obstructing the people wanting to go in. I mean, that was their legal right, we may disagree with, but that's their legal right, certainly, to go in and out. And the local law enforcement and then the FBI using the Face act to arrest Mark. And ultimately, for someone not familiar with that story, the short version of the story is that all the charges were dropped. I mean, this was just totally baseless. It is one of the most egregious examples of the Biden Department of Justice clearly identifying pro lifers using the FACE Act. You know, our. Our legal experts at Heritage, including Roger Severino, who's the expert on the Face act, said there's in modern history, never been a greater violation of, of religious freedom there. But the good news is not just because Donald Trump is President of the United States and is. Is not using the Face act for those purposes, but more importantly, Americans have the ideology of common sense that whatever you think about abortion, you shouldn't be using that particular piece of legislation for that purpose. There is a right to free speech, including outside abortion clinics.

[Georgia Howe]

Right. And we also saw on the flip side of that, not much interest in pursuing those who had vandalized churches or pro life sinners. Again, really kind of disturbing and egregious examples from the Biden administration. Hopefully we will see a reversal of that. But is there a danger that this goes too far and ends up swinging the other way and that we sort of have a special status for Christians among federal employees or how they're handled in situations like Face act cases.

[Kevin Roberts]

There's a zero percent chance that will happen because of two things. Number one, the political right in modern American history has never had that as a goal. We simply want to have a level playing field, which simply means we honor our religious liberty laws and jurisprudence. But the second reason is with Donald Trump as president, J.D. vance as vice president, these are men whom I happen to know personally who have no interest in that. And so the chatter from the radical left and some of their associated media outlets that that's what the objective is, is not 50% wrong, it's not 20% wrong. It is 100% wrong. There's literally a zero percent chance that will happen.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, in your op ed, you also talk about the US role on the global stage in terms of influence with religious freedom. You argue we should be leading on that front. In what ways do you see us being leaders for other nations when it comes to religious freedom?

[Kevin Roberts]

Well, in two ways. There are many, but two primary ways. The first is to use the bully pulpit of the presidency, for that matter, of being a congressional leader. So for Speaker Johnson, Leader Thune, who of course are also great men to talk about the plight of Christians in particular in the Middle east. We have seen over the last generation the near elimination of Christians in most Middle Eastern countries. In fact, as I point out in a recent op ed, the only country where we've seen an increase in the Christian population is in Israel. And there's a reason for that, because the Israeli government protects religious liberty. But so that bully pulpit, just identifying this, speaking to the American people and allies around the world about this, actually for Christians on the ground, some of whom I'm in touch with directly, is a real benefit. But the second thing is we have to make sure that the different parts of the administration, an apparatus like usaid, which thankfully is dying a well deserved death, that through the State Department, that we're actually supporting religious liberty, not a particular faith, I want to be clear, but religious liberty, the natural right of any individual to practice their religion in any government or any nation. And we haven't been doing that. In fact, we've been doing the opposite under usaid, using billions of dollars of American taxpayers money to actively undermine the plight of Christians in those countries. Thankfully, that's come to an end.

[Georgia Howe]

Now. You mentioned Israel. Do we see any other positive trends in some other countries in terms of religious freedom and growth in Christian communities, et cetera?

[Kevin Roberts]

Africa is the real hope there, not just socially and culturally, which of course are far upstream of politics. There's a real revitalization and expansion of Christian communities throughout Africa. There are exceptions like Nigeria. But the second thing is, and we know this in Heritage because of all the meetings we have with ambassadors and heads of state, there's a real growth in Africa or move toward a Western understanding of protecting religious liberty. And so what I see in Africa in the convergence of those two trends is something that probably will expand beyond their continent. I mean, the best case scenario here would be that European leaders, most of whom are actually hostile to their Christian foundations, might be reminded by African friends of what their cultural inheritance is. I'm actually really optimistic about this, especially with all the great work that the Trump administration is doing.

[Georgia Howe]

Final question. Specifically related to Catholicism, we've seen some reports that we actually are seeing a growth among younger populations in interest in Catholicism. What have you seen in your studies?

[Kevin Roberts]

Two things. One is a trend among older generations, particularly baby boomers, away from Roman Catholicism. And then secondly, to underscore the point you make overwhelming trend among a little bit in my generation, generation X, but especially millennials and younger generations toward not just Roman Catholic churches, but those diocese and Catholic parishes that have, in a broad sense of this term, conservative liturgy. I'm not talking about conservative politics. I'm talking about traditional liturgy. We see this anecdotally as a family in the Dioces Diocese of Arlington and the daily Masses I attended Washington, D.C. but the macro level trends done in studies done by various institutions are also very clear. I want to say that even for someone who is not Roman Catholic, this ought to be seen as being a real sign of hope because ultimately, what younger Americans are saying, whether they're entering the Catholic Church or the Orthodox Church, the Protestant Church may be returning to their family tradition of Judaism, is they're looking for belonging. They're looking for meaning. And for us at Heritage as a non sectarian institution, of course, which also honors the religious practices of all of our friends and colleagues, this is really hopeful for the future of America because it's going to make the federal government a lot less important.

[Georgia Howe]

So again, returning to a foundational American value there. Kevin Roberts, thank you so much for joining us.

[Kevin Roberts]

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[Georgia Howe]

That was Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts. And this has been a special Easter edition of MORNING wire.