DWDP - Essay.. The Manger and the Republic by Joe Wolverton

Freedom doesn’t survive on paperwork alone; it lives or dies on the character of a people. We open Galatians 5:1 and read Joe Wolverton’s stirring essay “The Manger and the Republic,” tracing a vivid line from Bethlehem to Philadelphia and asking what happens when a nation keeps the legal forms of liberty while losing the moral foundations that make liberty possible. Across history’s ledger—from Rome’s bread and circuses to modern screens and slogans—we examine how self‑government withers when virtue erodes and why every expansion of vice invites an expansion of state control.

Together we revisit what the founders understood: rights endure because they are gifts, not grants. Tocqueville’s insight on religion as the first political institution comes alive as we connect conscience to limited government, gratitude to social peace, and humility to the courage that resists tyranny. Christmas becomes more than sentiment; it is a strategy. The manger proclaims that rulers are ruled, that human dignity is not measured by compliance, and that no jail can bind a soul anchored in Christ. From carols that once rattled despots to nativity scenes that remind courthouses who truly reigns, we explore how worship shapes culture and, in turn, shapes law.

We close with a practical roadmap: begin renewal at home. Let families be the first government, marriages the first covenant, and living rooms the first sanctuaries of truth and beauty. Choose prayer over propaganda, gratitude over grievance, and courage over comfort. If freedom is to endure, it will be because households, churches, and schools teach hearts to govern themselves. Listen, reflect, and share your next step toward rebuilding virtue where you live. If this message resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and pass it to a friend who’s ready to trade noise for hope.

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Galatians On Freedom
• 1:06 Introducing The Essay’s Core Claim
• 3:12 Faith As Source Of Culture And Liberty
• 6:20 Historical Warnings From Rome To Today
• 10:20 Tocqueville, Virtue, And Self‑Government
• 13:20 Personal Vice And Political Tyranny
• 16:20 Bethlehem Versus The Tyrant’s Power
• 19:40 From Manger To Philadelphia
• 23:00 Removing God And The Rise Of Control

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:02

Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by our third physician, Dr. Robert Jackson.

SPEAKER_02: 0:16

Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go get your brother and your sisters, and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotion to the Dr. Papa. Gather round, grab your Bibles, and let us look into the written word, which reveals to us the living word, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, on this day before Christmas, I want to read to you a different scripture. We're going to deviate from Genesis, and I'm going to read to you a scripture in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 1. It says, It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Today I want to read to you an essay written by a constitutional lawyer. His name is Joe Wolverton, and he's a friend of mine, and he's been on this More Than Medicine podcast a couple of times in the past. The title of the essay is The Manger and the Republic Why Freedom Dies When Faith Fades. Every December, as the long nights descend and Christmas lights glimmer in windows across the land, something ancient and eternal stirs in the hearts of men. Though we seldom pause to think about it, those lights are not merely decorations. They are symbols of the light that broke into human history on the night the Savior was born. The world was transformed not by an emperor's decree, not by a conqueror's sword, and not by a politician's plan, but by a child lying in a manger. That child reordered the universe of men. He revealed the true hierarchy of power, first God, then man, then government. When man exalts government above God, freedom dies. When man exalts himself above both, chaos reigns. Our founding fathers understood this moral geometry of liberty. They knew that no paper constitution could preserve a people who rejected its moral foundation. John Adams declared our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. If politics is downstream from culture, then culture itself is downstream from faith. The life of a nation flows from what its people worship. If they worship the living God, they will honor his image in one another. But if they worship themselves, they will soon trample one another in pursuit of power and pleasure. The lesson is clear. Culture cannot be redeemed by law, and law cannot survive without virtue. The first duty of patriots is not to win elections, but to revive the moral soil from which freedom springs. Christmas reminds us of this truth every year. It is the celebration of divine humility, and humility is the first virtue of a free people. Every collapse in history begins with the corruption of morals. Laws may restrain behavior for a time, but when the conscience of a nation decays, even the best constitution becomes a lifeless script. Rome did not fall because its Senate forgot how to legislate, it fell because its people forgot how to live. Bread and circuses replaced duty and sacrifice, and the citizens, once fierce defenders of liberty, begged for rulers who would feed and entertain them. As the inimitable Algernon Sydney observed in discourses concerning government, the strength, virtue, glory, wealth, power, and happiness of Rome proceeding from liberty did rise, grow, and perish with it. The same contagion infects America today. We have traded temperance for indulgence, reverence for entertainment, and faith in God for self worship. We call vice expression, sin choice, and selfishness freedom. We drown in information but thirst for truth. Alexis de Tocqueville, observing early America, marveled that religion was the first of her political institutions. He saw that liberty was preserved not by force but by faith. Religion taught men to govern themselves, and self government is the only soil in which political freedom can grow. But as Tocqueville warned, despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. The crisis of our time is not primarily political, it is spiritual. When men cease to fear God, they begin to fear one another. When they no longer look upward for moral authority, they look outward for control. The more corrupt the people, the more power the government must claim to manage them. It is a deadly cycle, and every step away from virtue brings us closer to tyranny. Modern man stands on the ruins of the moral order and calls the rubble progress. He scoffs at faith while expecting the fruits of it justice, peace, and dignity to remain. He replaces reverence with the rebellion, and wonders why the world trembles. Schools that once began the day with prayer now begin it with propaganda. Art that once celebrated beauty now wallows in blasphemy. Families that once gathered around scripture now gather around screens. Even Christmas itself, the holiest of feast, has been repackaged as a festival of greed and distraction. The birth of Christ has been buried beneath a mountain of wrapping paper and noise. This is not mere nostalgia. The loss of sacred meaning always precedes the loss of freedom. A people that forgets the difference between the holy and the profane soon forgets the difference between the lawful and the lawless. As the book of Proverbs teaches, when there is no vision the people perish. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, said without religion there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty. The founders understood that moral virtue is not optional. It is oxygen for the soul of a republic. A corrupt people will inevitably vote for corrupt leaders, and those leaders will in turn create the corrupt systems that enslave them. Look around. We kill the unborn and call it compassion. We mutilate children and call it medicine. We turn marriage into a contract of convenience and call it equality. We have enthroned confusion and exiled truth. Such a nation cannot endure, for liberty cannot live long in a culture that celebrates bondage to sin. Every tyranny begins within. The freest man in the world can be a slave if his heart is captive to sin. Christ said Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. A society full of such servants cannot remain free for long. The man who cannot control himself will soon be controlled by others. We call ourselves free, but we are bound by invisible chains. Addiction, envy, pornography, anger, fear, debt. We have traded our birthright for indulgence, and the price is servitude. The modern man brags of autonomy while being governed by appetite. He cannot rise early, hold his tongue, or keep his word, yet he declares himself sovereign. Benjamin Franklin saw the danger clearly. Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. The moral collapse of individuals invites the political domination of tyrants. The state grows large as the soul grows small. It was no bureaucrats who made the family fragile, nor lawyers who made honesty optional, nor politicians who made lust respectable. Those were the choices of individuals multiplied across generations. The fall of freedom always begins in the mirror. Against this corruption stands Bethlehem, radiant and defiant. The birth of Christ was the invasion of heaven into history, the divine rebellion against every tyranny visible and invisible. The King of Kings entered the world not in wealth but in weakness, proving forever that freedom and dignity are not bestowed by rulers, but inherent in every soul created by God. He came to liberate mankind from the most ancient oppression, the bondage of sin and death. All political liberty flows from first that first liberation, for a man who knows he is redeemed cannot be made a slave in conscience. Saint Paul, chained in a Roman dungeon, could still write the word of God is not bound. Totalitarians tremble before that truth. The tyrant may seize property, silence speech, or imprison bodies, but he cannot imprison a soul that belongs to Christ. This is why every godless regime despises Christmas. It announces that Caesar is not Lord, and that man's worth is not measured in obedience, but in being made in the image of God. The angel's song peace on earth, good will toward men was not the promise of political tranquility, but the proclamation of a higher order, reconciliation between creator and creature. From that peace within the soul springs the courage to reject and resist oppression without. This is why Christmas is not merely sentimental. It is the most revolutionary event in history. It declares that power itself has limits, that truth cannot be censored, and that liberty is born not in parliaments, but in hearts made new by faith. There is a straight road paved by Providence from the manger in Bethlehem to the drafting table in Philadelphia. The American founders did not invent liberty. They recognized what had already been revealed. Because they believed that man was created in the image of God. They concluded that no ruler may rightfully govern without the consent of the governed. Because they believed that moral law is higher than human law, they limited government, so that men might remain free to obey their consciences. Thomas Jefferson asked in Notes on Virginia, can the liberty of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? Remove that conviction, and freedom becomes an accident waiting to be lost. The American Republic grew out of the conviction that rights are unalienable because they are divine. That is why every oath of office once ended with the words so help me God. It was an acknowledgement that even the ruler is ruled. Today that foundation is cracking. The secular mind insists that liberty can survive without God, that culture can thrive without morality, that rights can endure without righteousness. Yet everywhere we see the results of that delusion families shattered, schools corrupted, public trust dissolved, and government swollen to monstrous proportions. People who will not restrain their passions invite rulers who will restrain them by force. The war on Christmas, the erasure of gender, the redefination of marriage, the censorship of speech, all of these are battles in a single campaign to remove God from the American story. People who forget that their rights come from God will soon believe that their rights come from government, and the government, like any false god, will demand sacrifice. Every ornament of Christmas teaches a civic virtue. The manger teaches humility, the star teaches hope, the shepherds teach vigilance, the wise men teach courage and generosity. Together they form a catechism of liberty. Even the carols are acts of rebellion against tyranny. When we sing joy to the world the Lord is come, we proclaim that sovereignty belongs to Christ, not to Congress. When we sing O holy night, we confess that chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother. Those words were forbidden in France when first written, because despots sensed their power. They still fear them today. To celebrate Christmas faithfully is therefore a political act. It is to declare allegiance to a higher king. It is to affirm that freedom is sacred, not secular. Each nativity scene placed on a courthouse lawn is a sermon in stone, proclaiming that government itself kneels before the child. That is why the enemies of faith want it removed. Christmas calls us back to gratitude, the mother of all virtue. A grateful people does not envy, a grateful people does not riot. A grateful people does not surrender liberty for the false promise of security. Gratitude keeps the soul free. When we give thanks at Christmas for the gift of the Savior, we reclaim the posture of liberty. The story of freedom is the story of faith persevering through darkness. When Rome collapsed, monks and frozen monasteries preserved the scriptures that would one day ignite a new civilization. When medieval kings abused their power, the church reminded them that they too must answer to God, and struck a blow for liberty that would echo in the Declaration of Independence. From those centuries of struggle came the conviction that no human authority stands above divine truth. The English petition of right, the Mayflower Compact, and finally the American Declaration all grew from the same root, that conscience belongs to God alone. The modern world has forgotten this lineage. The secularists insist that he can keep the fruits of freedom after uprooting the tree of faith. He chops down the orchard and complains that the harvest fails. The result is a civilization technologically brilliant but morally barren. It builds towers that reach the clouds but cannot build a home where a child feels safe. Only a return to the faith that created liberty can preserve it. The Republic does not need new laws, it needs new hearts. The renewal of faith is not nostalgia, it is survival. Where can that renewal renewal begin? Not in Washington, not in state capitals, not in political parties, but in your home and mine. The first government is the family. The first constitution is the marriage covenant, the first church is the household altar. The early Christians conquered the Roman world not by the sword but by the cradle. They built strong families, cared for the weak, and refused to bow to Caesar. Their homes became sanctuaries of virtue. Their courage converted an empire. The same power is available to us today. Begin with prayer. Let fathers once again lead their households in worship. Let mothers teach children songs of faith instead of slogans of rebellion. Replace vulgar entertainment with beauty and replace complaint with gratitude. Teach sons to be protectors and daughters to be builders of virtue. When faith governs the home it will once again govern the nation. Support churches that preach repentance rather than popularity. Defend schools that teach truth rather than ideology. Encourage artists and writers who honor beauty rather than mock it. Every small act of fidelity strengthens the moral architecture of the Republic. Remember this. Every strong family weakens the chains of the state. Every act of charity defies the culture of cruelty. Every prayer whispered in sincerity sends tremors through the citadels of tyranny. The revolution of righteousness begins in the living room before it ever reaches the legislature. The so called modern era is a grim warning of what happens when nations separate freedom from faith. The French Jacobins replaced the altar with the guillotine. The Soviets replaced the cross with the hammer and sickle. Mao replaced prayer with propaganda. Each promised liberation, but they delivered slavery. Now America stands on the same precipice. Our idols are not as crude, but they are just as deadly. We worship comfort, celebrity, and control and We have allowed the bureaucrat to become our priest and the screen to become our prophet. We have turned our schools into temples of confusion and our courts into altars of moral relativism. A society that mocks God cannot remain free. It will legislate itself into bondage. It will censor truth. It will destroy the family. It will censor truth to preserve lies. It will destroy the family to preserve the state. Already we see the signs. Citizens afraid to speak truth, children confused about their identity, churches silenced by fear of offense. We are living in the moral twilight that precedes tyranny. Yet there is hope. The same God who raised Israel from captivity and Christ from the tomb can raise this republic from ruin. But revival requires repentance. We must once again bow before the manger before we can stand free from men. Two cities confront us Babylon and Bethlehem. Babylon gleams with the counterfeit light of pride. Bethlehem glows with the humble light of truth. Babylon promises indulgence and delivers despair. Bethlehem promises sacrifice and delivers salvation. If America continues on the road to Babylon, her liberty will be devoured by her own corruption. She will become rich in goods, but poor in goodness, powerful in weapons but powerless in will. But if she turns toward Bethlehem, toward the faith that gave her birth she will rise again. The apostle Paul declared where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Freedom without Christ is a counterfeit. But with Christ, even in a dungeon a man is free. The first Christmas ended with Herod's soldiers marching to slaughter the innocents. Yet history remembers the child and forgets the tyrant. The same will be true of every despot who wages war against faith. Therefore let us keep Christmas not as sentiment, but as strategy. Let every candle lit and every hymn sung proclaim that the light still shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Let our families be fortresses of faith, our churches citadels of truth, our communities beacons of hope. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. Upon that shoulder rests the only government that can never become tyrannical. In that cradle lies the only liberty that death cannot destroy. This Christmas let every American kneel before the manger, rise renewed, and go forth to restore a nation that remembers the source of its freedom. For where Christ reigns, men are free indeed. Merry Christmas to you and your household. I'm thankful to my friend Joe Wolverton for writing such an insightful essay. I pray that God will bless you and your family this Christmas, and remember that Jesus loves you and your doctor loves you. Until next week, may the Lord bless you real good.

SPEAKER_00: 23:30

Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or webpage at Jackson Family Ministry.com. Also, don't forget to check out Dr. Jackson's books that are available on Amazon. The Family Doctor Speed.