We join in giving thanks to Almighty God for what the Founders called this American experiment in ordered liberty. In the Year of Our Lord 1997, the experiment is deeply troubled but it has not failed and, please God, will not fail. As America has been a blessing to our forebears and to us, so will it be a blessing to future generations, if we keep faith with the founding vision.

Invoking "the law of nature and of nature's God," the Founders declared, "We hold these truths to be self-evident." Americans must ask themselves whether they hold them still. We, for…