Who Is Robert P. George?

My VIP for this week is Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Last year, George declared June to be “Fidelity Month” and dedicated the month to “the importance of fidelity to God, our spouses and families, and our country and communities.” Admitting that he was not vested with any power to do so, Lee reported that thousands of people joined him.

In 2024, George again declared June to be “Fidelity Month” and claims that “tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, are participating. 

Since June is also known as “PRIDE Month,” George has exhibited an extraordinary amount of courage to celebrate God, family, and country. His reason for doing so is that there are “deep divisions and polarization” in our country because Americans are losing the core American values upon which the United States of America was founded. In his article published in the Deseret News, George wrote the following:

In 1798, the vice president of our young nation – a man named John Adams – penned a letter to officers of the Massachusetts Militia in which he wrote that “(w)e have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion.”

“Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people,” Adams declared. “It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Adam’s conception of constitutional republican government necessarily sustained by widespread respect for religion and universal moral norms is a principle upon which the United States was founded – and is one in which I firmly believe. But more than 225 years later, Adams’ vision for our country’s moral foundation seems to be slipping away.

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 80% of Americans believe that religion’s role in public life is shrinking, and a widely circulated Wall Street Journal poll last year uncovered startling decreases in our fellow citizens’ beliefs in the importance of such values patriotism, religious faith, having children, community involvement and hard work. Of the values and priorities the Journal surveyed, only one – money – was cited as “very important” by a higher percentage of respondents than when the poll was first conducted in 1998.

These precipitous declines in the core values that have united us as Americans – values we ought to cherish – threaten to further entrench the already deep divisions and polarization that have befallen our country….

We Americans are people of many races, ethnicities, traditions of religious faith and cultural heritages. Despite our differences – some profound, others less so – we have historically found fellowship with each other in our shared commitments not only to our nation’s constitutional principles, but also in our shared fidelity to God. After all, our official national motto is “In God We Trust.” …

We Americans have also historically been united by our shared commitments to the importance of faithful marriages, family life and our dedication to our children and their futures – as well as our patriotism, our love of neighbor and our belief in the importance of faithful marriages, family life and our dedication to our children and their futures – as well as our patriotism, our love of neighbor and our belief in the importance of serving our communities.

When we celebrate June as Fidelity Month, we recommit ourselves to the importance of all of these virtuous things. By acting in service of God, family, country and community, we honor the highest and best of values – those things that are not merely means to other ends, but are good in themselves.

This is not so when we act in service of money or material enrichment, or on behalf of other things that are, or can be legitimate means to other ends, but are not intrinsically valuable, that is, good in themselves.