In W. Cleon Skousen’s The 5000 Year Leap, the clergy’s role is to stress morality from the pulpits, fuel the “flame of freedom,” provide moral stability to the people, and alert citizens to dangerous trends—without getting involved in partisan politics.
This is covered primarily in the section/subsection titled “The Clergy Fuel the Flame of Freedom, Stressed Morality, and Alerted the Citizenry to Dangerous Trends” (around pages 39–42 in some editions). Skousen draws heavily on Alexis de Tocqueville’s observations in Democracy in America to explain how the clergy helped produce and sustain a “moral and religious people”—which the Founding Fathers (and Skousen) saw as an absolute prerequisite for the U.S. Constitution to function.
Points from the Book
- Clergy teach righteousness and moral values as the foundation of a free society: De Tocqueville noted that American clergy stayed out of government and partisan politics (no public appointments, not in legislatures), but they kept “a message of religious principles and moral values flowing out to the people as the best safeguard for America’s freedom and political security.”
- Pulpits “aflame with righteousness” produce national goodness: The most famous quote Skousen highlights is de Tocqueville’s: “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
- Clergy (along with home and school) cultivate virtue generation after generation: The Founders looked to churches to instill the “religion of America”—five universal principles (belief in a Creator, a revealed moral code, accountability to God, life after death, and final judgment). This moral education was seen as essential so that “national morality can prevail.” George Washington warned in his Farewell Address (quoted in the book) that “reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” avalonlibrary.net
- John Adams’ famous statement ties it together: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
In short, Skousen presents the clergy as the non-political moral backbone of society: their job is to keep the people virtuous through religious and moral teaching so that self-government can work. Without this ongoing influence from the churches, the Founders believed the entire experiment in liberty would collapse into tyranny or anarchy. This is part of Skousen’s broader Principle on religion and morality being “indispensable supports” for political prosperity.
The book treats this as one of the key reasons America made its “5000 year leap” in freedom and progress.
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