We the Fallen People Quotes

“Americans have long found it difficult to think about the nation's Founders with discernment. We eschew nuance and complexity for an all-or-nothing dogmatism that either venerates the Founders of views them with disdain. Let's strive to do better.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“the Constitutional Convention was essentially a reactionary coup by men in powdered wigs defending upper-class privilege.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“Rather than focusing on political outcomes, we should be asking ourselves constantly, "What is the vote I am casting (or the opinion I am registering, or the post I am liking, or the tweet I am sharing) proclaiming about what it means to follow Jesus, about the nature of the gospel, about the heart of God?”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“Never for a minute accept the false dichotomy that pits patriotism against an honest acknowledgement of America's failures and flaws. Because love binds rather than blinds, we are free to criticize our country without somehow betraying it.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“They designed a Constitution for fallen people. Its genius lay in how it held in tension two seemingly incompatible beliefs: first, that the majority must generally prevail; and second, that the majority is predisposed to seek personal advantage above the common good.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“American clergy in the 1830s recognized what so many contemporary Christian leaders have forgotten -- namely, that political influence always comes at a cost to the church. When Christians ally themselves with a particular political leader or party, the church "increases its power over some but gives up hope reigning over all." The reason for this is straightforward: "Religion cannot share the material might of those who govern without incurring some of the hatred they inspire.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“We bear the image of God. We occupy a unique place in God's created order--"a little lower than the angels" according to the psalmist (Ps. 8:5). We bear the divine imprint in the sense that we posses, among other things, an eternal soul, the faculty of reason, and a "capacity for moral goodness." We're not just animals with a more developed cerebral cortex. There's a precious dignity inherent in our status as God's image bearers.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“Although we may not like to hear it, proponents of the Constitution repeatedly insisted that, when it comes to our character, Americans aren't exceptional.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“We Americans who seek to follow Jesus need to desperately to think more Christianly about our political values, but it's hard to think Christianly about values that we have taken for granted for so long that we're no longer even aware of them. This is where historical knowledge becomes invaluable. At its best, our engagement with the past can help us to see the present--and ourselves--with new eyes.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“I'm convinced that faithful remembering is critical to faithful living, I'm distressed by the "historylessness" that generally characterizes American Christians. Among its other costs, our historical amnesia contributes directly to our dysfunctional engagement with contemporary politics, a pattern distinguished chiefly by its worldly pragmatism and shallowness. I fear we are giving the culture reason to view followers of Christ as simply one more interest group, one more strategically savvy voting bloc willing to trade political support for political influence.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“If we have a blind spot, it's more likely to involve those values where Americans have long been agreed, not where we are politically polarized. When they go unchallenged across generations, areas of agreement gradually morph into "timeless" truths, timeless truths become truisms, truisms become bipartisan platitudes. By that point, all serious thought has died. The values in question may shape us profoundly, but they've become like the air that we breathe, as invisible to us as they are ever present. And we can never think carefully about values we cannot see.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“I am convinced that a necessary first step to a healthier democracy will be to jettison two of our most deeply held democratic assumptions. We must renounce democratic faith, our unthinking belief that democracy is intrinsically just. We must disavow democratic gospel, the "good news" that we are individually goo and collectively wise.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

“We must think deeply before we can act effectively. Platitudes won't help us. There is no solution to our democratic malaise that can be slapped on a bumper sticker, stitched to a ball cap, condensed into a tweet, or chanted at a rally of "the base." We have more than enough slogans. To thrive, democracy requires grownup conversations.”
― Robert Tracy McKenzie, We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy