American Renewal: The Nehemiah Option

“They who built up the wall, and they who carried the materials, every one of them with one of his hands worked at building, and with the other hand held a weapon.”

–Nehemiah 4:17

We are living in an era beset by decadence and institutional decay, when many of the forms and practices of our society feel like they are outliving their usefulness. Their growing disrepair, and the ensuing crises of legitimacy that now plague us on many fronts, constantly confront Americans with an implicit choice between revolution and renewal.