Today we have a guest blog from Mr. G.C. Stevenson, a regular reader who was the “prime mover” behind the republication of Fulton Sheen’s “long lost” classic, Freedom Under God.
Fulton Sheen’s Warning for a Nation in Moral Freefall
By G.C. Stevenson
I. A Voice from the Past
In 1940, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote Freedom Under God as a spiritual lifeline for a world unraveling in war and ideological chaos. Eighty-five years later, his words echo with haunting relevance. “If trumpets give an uncertain sound,” Sheen asked, “who will prepare for battle?” (Fulton J. Sheen, The Trumpet Must Sound, final chapter.)
Today, America faces a moral crisis not unlike the one Sheen warned of—only now, the enemy is not just external tyranny, but internal decay.
II. A Nation Divided by Metaphysics
The recent assassination of Charlie Kirk, a young conservative firebrand and founder of Turning Point USA, has exposed the raw nerves of a nation divided not merely by politics, but by metaphysics. Kirk was controversial, yes. But his death—celebrated by some, rationalized by others—reveals a deeper sickness: the erosion of moral reasoning and the rise of organized, irrational atheism.
Sheen foresaw this. He wrote of a “bond of unity among the enemies of God,” where intellectuals who mock morality and revolutionaries who hate it find common cause. (Fulton J. Sheen, Freedom Under God, Chapter 3: “Enemies of God.”) Today’s atheism is not passive disbelief—it is a militant creed, cloaked in slogans and weaponized against conscience. It ridicules faith, deconstructs virtue, and replaces truth with tribalism.
Kirk’s critics accused him of bigotry, but few paused to ask: what kind of society cheers a murder because it dislikes the victim’s ideas? Sheen would call this “purposeless living”—a madness born of abandoning the Eternal Reason of God. (Ibid., Chapter 4: “Purposeless Living.”) When emotion replaces reason, and slogans replace scripture, we do not get progress. We get chaos.
III. The Worship of Self
In Freedom Under God, Sheen warned that “when man ceases to recognize a power and authority higher than himself, he begins to worship himself.” (Ibid., Chapter 5: “The Worship of Self.”) That worship has now metastasized into a culture where self-expression is sacred, but self-restraint is heresy. We have traded the Ten Commandments for ten thousand opinions, and in doing so, we have lost the moral grammar that makes civilization possible.
He also wrote, “The basic trouble with the modern world is that it has lost all sense of finality.” (Ibid., Chapter 6: “Loss of Finality.”) This loss of finality—of eternal truths and moral absolutes—has left us adrift. We no longer ask what is right, but what is popular. We no longer seek justice, but vengeance. And in this vacuum, ideology becomes idolatry.
IV. A Call to Repentance
So, what are we going to do about it?
“One thing, admit our guilt—our guilt, all of us, Americans as well as Europeans, for we, too, have let God slip from our grasp. Our greatest enemy is not outside our shores... it is in our souls—forgetfulness of our brotherhood in God. There are too many divisions and classes among us in America now; too many hates, too few deep loves; too much tolerance based on expediency and not enough tolerance grounded in charity; too much tolerance of evil and not enough intolerance of injustice. Where are we going to find the basis of our unity?” (Ibid., Chapter 7: “Call to Repentance.”)
That question still hangs in the air. And Sheen answered it—not with policy, but with prophecy. The basis of our unity is not in party platforms or cultural trends. It is in the shared moral love that binds all men of goodwill. It is in the recognition that we are not gods, but brothers. That truth is not invented but received.
“Men of goodwill: unite! Unite because the new enemy is, as the Holy Father calls it, a ‘common danger.’ It is common to Jews, Protestants, and Catholics. It makes no distinction among them... we are all in the same boat because all men of goodwill are afloat on the sea of moral love.” (Ibid., Chapter 8: “Men of Goodwill.”)
The penny still speaks: E pluribus unum. But the answer lies on its reverse: In God we trust. Without that trust, unity is a mirage.
Let the trumpet sound again—not with the uncertain notes of compromise, but with the clear call of conscience.
V. Sheen’s Response to Moral Chaos: The Flowering of Perfection
In an age of ideological confusion and moral collapse, Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s voice echoes like a trumpet in the fog. He saw clearly what many now only sense: that the crisis of our time is not merely political or economic—it is spiritual. And his prescription was not revolution, but reverence.
Sheen did not call for louder protests or sharper polemics. He called for prayer. He urged every soul to return to the Hour of Devotion, a sacred time carved out daily to reconnect with the eternal. “The basic trouble with the modern world,” he wrote, “is that it has lost all sense of finality.” (Ibid., Chapter 6: “Loss of Finality.”) Without God, man becomes a wanderer, chasing fleeting pleasures and temporary truths.
In The Trumpet Must Sound, Sheen declared:
“Let the trumpet sound again—not with the uncertain notes of compromise, but with the clear call of conscience.” (Fulton J. Sheen, The Trumpet Must Sound, final chapter.)
That call of conscience is cultivated in silence, not in slogans. It is formed in the chapel, not the chamber. Sheen believed that only through prayer could the soul be reawakened to its divine purpose—and only through devotion could a nation rediscover its moral compass.
VI. The Final Sequence: Freedom and Religion
Sheen’s final chapter in Freedom Under God offers the culminating insight of his entire body of work. It’s here that he draws the distinction between freedom of choice and freedom of perfection—a distinction that cuts to the heart of our national crisis.
“Freedom of choice is liberty and implies the absence of constraint and the power of self-determination... But over and above the hundreds of free choices made by the human soul, there is a higher kind of freedom; namely, freedom of perfection.” (Ibid., Chapter 9: “Freedom and Religion.”)
In other words, liberty alone is not enough. A nation may be free to choose, but if it chooses wrongly—if it chooses selfishness, decadence, or nihilism—it is not truly free. True freedom, Sheen insists, is found in the pursuit of perfect Truth, perfect Love, and perfect Life. It is found in the possession of God. And that is, as Sheen said, “the flowering of perfection.”
This is the final act in Sheen’s moral drama: a call not just to reclaim liberty, but to elevate it. To move from freedom of license to freedom of holiness. To recognize that the soul was made for more than comfort—it was made for communion.
VII. Conclusion: The Trumpet Must Sound
If Fulton Sheen were alive today, he would not be surprised by the chaos. He warned of it. But he would not despair. He would kneel.
His answer to the national moral and social mess would be simple, radical, and eternal: Prayer and Hour of Devotion. Fulton Sheen wouldn’t reach for a megaphone—he’d reach for a rosary.
And in that sacred hour, the nation might remember what it means to be truly free.
“True liberty consists not in what we demand of God; namely, that He come down, but what God demands of us; namely, that we come up. The purchase of freedom is always an upward movement—up to Truth! up to the Goal of Life! up to Perfection! up to the flowering of personality! up to the freedom of the Spirit! even when hanging on a cross. Up! Up! Up! to God!” (Ibid., Final paragraph of Freedom Under God.)
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