America speaks constantly of freedom while becoming increasingly enslaved to appetite, anger, screens, consumption, and desire. Scripture and America's Founders understood something we are in danger of forgetting: liberty cannot survive without self-government. Chapter 28 of The Founders’ Quill asks a deeply personal question—what has mastered us? The recovery of ordered liberty may begin much closer to home than Washington.

America's greatest crisis is not political, economic, or military. It is a crisis of character. The Founders understood that constitutions can restrain power, but they cannot create virtue. Long before a republic is preserved in its laws, it is preserved in the lives of ordinary citizens who govern themselves according to truth. This week's Founders' Quill invites us to look beyond the headlines—and into the mirror.