This year, a number of governors and state legislatures issued proclamations and passed resolutions dedicating the month of June to a theme. These included “Life Month,” “Pride Month,” “Nuclear Family Month” and “Strong Families Month.”
The governors of Utah and Arkansas, the Kentucky Senate and the Michigan House of Representatives chose to recognize June as Fidelity Month. The Fidelity Month movement, which I launched in 2023 — by the authority vested in me by absolutely no one — is a grassroots movement calling on Americans of all backgrounds, religious traditions and political persuasions to rededicate themselves to God, their spouses and families, and our country and communities.
In 2023, the rather troubling findings of a poll came to my attention. It showed that the belief of our fellow citizens in core values that had once been principal sources of our national unity and strength — faith in God, having families, love of country and concern for our communities — had significantly diminished over the past decade. In fact, the only value whose perceived importance had gone up, according to the polling, was money.
The decline of those core values troubles me because they truly have been sources of our national unity and strength. After all, we Americans are not bound to each other, as the people of some nations are, by a common racial or ethnic heritage, religious tradition, cultural history or political philosophy. Rather, despite our different racial and ethnic backgrounds, religious traditions, and political persuasions, we have historically been united in our shared commitment to the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and in our common belief in the importance of faithfulness to God, family and country.
My concern was and is simple: What happens to a nation such as ours if we lose or abandon these shared values? What is left to unite us?
So, it seems to me that the American people need periodic reminders that these values are indeed important and that they can once again unite us despite our many (and increasing) divisions. Uniting — that’s what Fidelity Month is all about and will remain all about going forward. Just as there are days, weeks and months dedicated to other causes, we have Fidelity Month each June as a celebration of values that once were, and can once again be, our sources of unity and strength.
Fidelity Month doesn’t take anything away from other observances. Although some Catholics have expressed concern that celebrating Fidelity Month in June interferes with the Catholic Church’s recognition of June as the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Catholics (I myself am one) can join our co-religionists during this month in honoring the Sacred Heart while joining with our friends and fellow citizens of other traditions of faith in celebrating Fidelity Month.
People of all faiths and ideologies can honor the particularities of their specific traditions while uniting with their fellow citizens of many other faiths in celebrating values that cross religious boundaries, including those of faith in God, fidelity in marriage and family, and dedication to our country and communities.
Gov. Spencer Cox and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, state legislators around the country, and others who recognize Fidelity Month have been moved by its message of unity. In the coming years, I hope that more governors and state legislators, as well as leaders of religious, civic and commercial institutions, will join our movement, in both red and blue states. I happen to be a conservative, but there are liberals who understand the importance of the values that Fidelity Month upholds and seeks to restore. We welcome them with open arms. Just as Fidelity Month is not religiously sectarian, it is not politically partisan.
There are, of course, some Americans — especially at the ideological extremes — who do not share our vision for unity. Most, however, do. And most share our concern about trends of personal and political alienation, especially among young people. These trends reflect the erosion of fidelity to God, families and country.
So, let us all join in lighting a candle rather than being content to curse the darkness.
As we approach the Fourth of July on which we will mark the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, let us reflect that the men who pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to establish a polity “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” understood that such a nation could not “long endure” without a sharing of values that point beyond ourselves and our narrow self-interest.
The most foundational of those values, as our founders knew, are fidelity to God, family and country.