Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk recently interviewed a Christian camp leader whose ministry is aimed at high school students. God has called this camp leader to bring the gospel to American youth. Kirk himself is a fixture on America’s university campuses. They are both finding an incredible hunger among our nation’s young people that they are addressing with the authentic, unfiltered gospel message.

So many of the issues bedeviling American culture and politics today—such as protecting the sanctity of life or understanding that we are made male and female—get back to whether the Bible is true. Straight biblical truth is the main thing that can save America. It is also what reaches today’s young Americans. They are skeptical of organized religion and have seen a lot of hypocrisy. The way you break through to them is with the undiluted gospel of Jesus Christ.

Of course, presenting the gospel without watering it down is the central idea that has motivated Dr. James Dobson and JDFI for years. It is why Dr. Dobson and I wrote Children at Risk. It is why Ronald Reagan said every generation has an obligation to make sure our liberty is secure. It is about faith. It is about culture. And it is about whether America survives as one nation under God.

Here is more encouraging news.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen’s latest survey finds that American voters overwhelmingly agree with four key phrases intertwined with American ideals.¹ One of those key phrases is this: Our nation was “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”² Eighty-six percent of voters agree with that statement.

Another widely accepted phrase associated with America’s ideals is stated this way: “We should be judged by the content of our character, not by the color of our skin.”³ Ninety-four percent of voters agreed with that statement. If he were alive today, surely Martin Luther King Jr. would be smiling. The Trump-Vance Administration is acting upon the moral principle that souls do not come in colors. They are attempting to reverse years of policies and regulations that judge people on the color of their skin, not the content of their character—from affirmative action and quotas to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Our skin color is the least important thing about us. That was the whole message of the Civil Rights Movement.

It was also the message of the Founding Fathers. To a person, they believed that only a virtuous people, people with good character, can remain free.

In his Farewell Address, President George Washington declared, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports . . . reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”⁴

John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”⁵

James Madison wrote that our Constitution demands “sufficient virtue among men for self-government.”⁶

I am glad Rasmussen did this survey, but I think he has buried the lede. Do not miss this obvious point: For decades, our public schools have been teaching young Americans that God and religion have absolutely nothing to do with the founding of America. Students have been taught that the great giants of our founding wanted nothing to do with religion, that they wanted to create a country free of religion, and that the early settlers came to America to get away from religion.

Here is one more of those phrases – with which eighty-seven percent of voters agreed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . .”⁷ But that is not just an “ideal.” It is an expression of religious truth that the Founding Fathers put in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. It is the main idea of America. To be a real American, you must believe that truth and understand its power. It defines who we are.

Historically, the Pilgrims and other early settlers came believing they were fulfilling God’s plan to plant the cross of Christ in America. Their belief explains why the sentence about our Creator and our rights is in our Declaration of Independence. They were deeply religious people, eager to spread the good news.

Approximately 150 years later, our Founding Fathers boldly declared that certain rights do not come from the king of England but from God, and those unalienable rights cannot be taken away or surrendered. So, after all the years of radical leftists trying to rip God out of America, the news that 87 percent of Americans agree with what the Founders wrote is astonishing. It is exactly what Dr. Dobson and JDFI have been fighting for over these many years.

Too often, the idea of equality is equated with equity and other socialist principles. But we are not created equal in size. Babies and adults come in all sizes. Neither are we created equal financially. There are all kinds of ways that we are not created equal. Is that phrase a lie then? No.

What the Founders meant is that we all bear “Imago Dei,” the image of God, and that makes us all equal in terms of our individual dignity, value, and worth. How are these phrases relevant today? The values they convey should be regular material for Sunday sermons. These are biblical concepts. These principles, whether fully understood or not, are on the ballot in every election.

By and large, the secular Left is fighting religious conservatives in America for who will define the future of our country. The secular Left rejects God. It does not believe He is involved in the affairs of men. It rejects the idea that the Creator gave us life, which is why the Left is so vehemently in favor of abortion. It denies that the Creator made us male and female. The secular Left wants race to define everything about us. It is hostile to religious liberty.

Broadly speaking, religious conservatives want biblical ideas and founding principles to remain our core beliefs going into the future—a future filled with all kinds of challenges and dangers but also with hope and opportunities for peace and progress.

With your ongoing prayers and support, JDFI will continue to defend these values as we “fight the good fight” (cf. 1 Tim. 6:12) for faith, family, and freedom.

1. Rasmussen, Scott. “Four Key Phrases Voters Agree On,” Napolitan News Service, July 26, 2025, https://napolitannews.org/posts/four-key-phrases-voters-agree-on?lid=361772783485fe3a848ef64845df521b2b284a4ad5&utm_source=email&utm_medium=post_notification_email&utm_campaign=PostNotificationEmail20250726&utm_content=four-key-phrases-voters-agree-on
2. Lincoln, Abraham. “Gettysburg address delivered at Gettysburg Pa. Nov. 19^th, 1863.” Library of Congress. Accessed July 29, 2025. https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.24404500/?st=text.
3. “’I Have a Dream’ Speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the “March on Washington,” 1963 (excerpts).” The Gilder Lehrnan Institute of American History. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/king.dreamspeech.excerpts.pdf
4. Washington, George. “George Washington, September 17, 1796, Farewell Address. Library of Congress. Accessed July 29, 2025. https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw2.024/?sp=243&st=text.
5. Adam, John. “From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798. Founders Online. National Archives. Accessed July 29, 2025. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102.
6. Madison, James. The Federalist Papers: No. 55. “The Total Number of the House of Representatives From the New York Packet. Friday, February 15, 1788.” The AVALON PROJECT: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy. Avalon Project. November 6, 2018. Accessed July 29, 2025. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed55.asp.
7. “Thomas Jefferson, et al, July 4, 1776, Copy of Declaration of Independence.” Library of Congress. Accessed July 29, 2025. https://www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib000159/.