Religion, and Moral Restraints, Are Necessary for Maintaining a Free Society

In the book of Exodus, God makes an explicit decision not to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan via the short way—that is, what is now the Gaza strip—but instead to take them the long way through the Sinai Peninsula, so that they will enter Canaan from the east bank of the Jordan. This path, noted Yuval Levin a 2014 essay, means the Jews will first have to receive the law in the Sinai wilderness before they can achieve sovereignty in their land. In conversation with Jonathan Silver, Levin explains the lesson for today’s America, whose political system is founded on the oft-forgotten assumption that institutions—and religion not least of all—will safeguard citizens from the temptations of unrestricted liberty. (Audio, 50 minutes.)