The Tragedy of Tranquil Chains

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom - go from us in peace. … May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”

These wise words were spoken by Samuel Adams in a speech at the Pennsylvania State House on August 1, 1776.

The great tragedy of American Christendom over the past 100 years is not merely that the secular Left has offered chains and bondage, but that so many believers have quietly accepted them.

The spiritual heirs of Moses before Pharaoh, Peter before the Sanhedrin, and Bonhoeffer before the Third Reich have too often chosen silence over sacrifice. Rather than engage in the contest for the public square, we have withdrawn, ceding ground to a secularism that now drafts, passes, and codifies its own false religion into law.

America’s Founders would not call us to rebellion, but to responsibility and stewardship. Not to entitlements, but to enterprise. Not to tranquil submission, but to what Samuel Adams called the “animating contest of freedom.”

A Movement Has Begun

In that spirit, a new generation is beginning to rise.

Last week, CBN News Chief Political Analyst David Brody spotlighted the work of the North Carolina Renewal Project and its bold goal: to recruit 500 pastors and parishioners to run for public office in 2026 and 2028. “What we’re doing is spiritual; the byproduct is political,” said David Lane, founder of the American Renewal Project.

“If we stay home, the other side puts their candidates in office, who then draft and pass legislation and codify into law their values.”

In 2022, the American Renewal Project successfully recruited 50 pastors and spiritual leaders to run for office across North Carolina. Twenty-five won their primaries. Ten won the general elections.

The mission now expands - not just to influence elections, but to reshape culture at the gates: school boards, city councils, county commissions, and congressional seats. “American culture is nothing but the public manifestation of the false religion - secularism - lording over the nation,” Lane told the gathering in Raleigh.

📖 Read the full story:

Evangelicals Entering Office: ‘We’re Asking the Living God to Move into the Public Square of America’

“We’re asking the living God to move into the public square of America.”

The Hour Is Late - But Not Too Late.

Let us be clear: somebody’s values will reign supreme in the public square.

The battle for America’s soul is no longer theoretical or just beyond the horizon - it is here. And it will not be won by mere spectators.

If we are to preserve liberty, we must reject the false peace of tranquil chains and reenter the fray with clarity, courage, and conviction.

Let it not be said of us what was once written of another - a man carried swiftly toward the roaring falls of Niagara, passing the time sketching an admirable portrait of the landscape. We do not have the luxury of artistic distraction or well-intentioned detachment. The moment demands engagement.

Time to Abandon Pharaoh’s Schools

We must face a hard truth: much of public education, both higher and lower, will likely need to be abandoned.

The formation of hearts and minds must be moved outside the present apparatus, which is dominated by godless secularism and staffed by its zealous disciples - those who despise the Word of God and specialize in manufacturing rebellion against both the Lord and loving parents.

Thankfully, Gideons and Rahabs have begun to rise.

David Lane

American Renewal Project