John Stonestreet and Eric Metaxas interiew Os Guinness about the real foundation of American freedom, and why this is our last chance to save it.

Listen Now | Download

(This interview first aired on August 11, 2012).

Can freedom flourish where virtue does not? That's a question the late Chuck Colson cared deeply about, but it's also one addressed powerfully by theologian and author, Os Guinness. During this week's interview, you'll meet Os, author of the book "A Free People's Suicide," as he discusses the real basis of American freedom.

In gauging where we are culturally as a nation, it's helpful to gain a perspective from someone born not only overseas, but also from an outstanding Christian worldview thinker like Os Guinness. And perspective is something we desperately need, especially as opposing forces in the so-called "culture wars" attempt to rewrite American history to suit their own biases and interests.

Was America founded by secular deists interested only in the establishment of free thought and expulsion of religion from public life? Absolutely not. But it also wasn't founded by a uniform band of Evangelical, orthodox Christians who set out to create a chosen nation for God.

The real history is much more complicated than that, and as Os Guinness argues in his new book, it's far more exciting as well.

The American experiment in ordered liberty was founded on three interdependent precepts which Guinness calls, "the Golden Triangle." Freedom requires virtue, which in turn requires faith, which of course can only be truly practiced in a free society. "And so it goes round and round like the recycling wheel," says Guinness.

Through this triad of concepts, the American founders sought to address the failures of previous cultures and governments, envisioning a free society "which could last forever."

"They wanted a sustainable form of freedom," contends Guinnes. "But I believe America today is practicing an unsustainable form of freedom."

So the clock is ticking. But in order to stabilize our American society—that historical miracle fueled by the virtue of a faith-filled people and the freedom of a government without religious establishments—we must embrace again the vision of the framers which united faith, freedom and virtue as one.

Only in such a society, agreed Chuck Colson, could liberty reign for long.

---

Learn More...

• To pick up your copy of Os Guinness' new book, "A Free People's Suicide," >>CLICK HERE.
• To listen to Eric Metaxas' August 10 BreakPoint commentary about the "golden triangle of freedom," >>CLICK HERE.