As much of the world looks at the United States with disdain and distrust, it is time for us to take a cold, hard look at what we have become. John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” We have strayed from our clear moral beginnings to become an egotistical culture that glorifies self. We try to set our own standards despite Thomas Paine’s warning that “man cannot make or invent or contrive principles. He can only discover them, and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.”

As our society celebrates injustice against people who stand for their convictions, it’s hard to forget the words of John Adams who wrote, “justice is a great Christian as well as moral duty.” With the decline of virtue in so many areas of our culture – from twerking on stage to cheating scandals at universities to corporate theft by aggressive bankers – we should take heed of George Washington’s warning that “liberty, when it degenerates into licentiousness, begets confusion, and frequently ends in tyranny or some woeful catastrophe.”

Liberty’s Secrets exposes readers to the Founding Fathers as never before. They believed in God, Judeo-Christian values, and the freedom and necessity of religion in order to have a free and prosperous society. They believed in a free press and knew, as John Adams argued, “when a people is corrupted, the press may be made an engine to complete their ruin.” They believed in a limited government, strong education, and private property.

Liberty’s Secrets is like having a front row seat to the congresses and conventions where these leaders hashed out the profound issues of life and society. Charles has cataloged all of the Founding Fathers' writings and inLiberty’s Secrets provides an exposé of their profound yet glossed-over insights, delving into the subjects most important to maintaining a free society at a time when we most need to recover them. In so doing, Liberty’s Secretsequips readers to use the Founders' knowledge and understanding to neutralize the cultural myths currently undermining American liberty. 

It is hard not to wonder whether catastrophe is upon us. If ever there was a time to grow up as a nation, now is the time. It is time to recover the morals and moorings of our Founders. It is time to rediscover Liberty’s secrets.

Joshua Charles is the co-author, with Glenn Beck, of New York Times best-selling book The Original Argument. A fellow at the Public Policy Institute of William Jessup University, he earned his M.A. in Government at Regent University.  In addition to being a columnist and speaker who has appeared throughout the U.S. and around the world, Mr. Charles is a concert pianist. He is currently earning a law degree.