The Exceptional American Jed Wrote...

It’s been said that the thing that really made America exceptional in the history of nations is that we were the first great superpower to say that we are not great. What made America great is that we said you should never trust an American. Not any farther than you can throw him. 
But that does not mean that America has not been populated by exceptional people. It has, abundantly so. The foolish royalty of Europe gave away their greatest treasures when they chased off our forefathers across the Atlantic. Though our founding fathers said you should never trust an American - and thus our political system of checks and balances - this nation has been lavishly blessed with forefathers and foremothers that children and towns could trust and build around, for their flourishing.
What They Knew
These men and women knew of goodnesses and beauties that are objectively true, unchanging, and full of life and glory. These were people who could look at a sea of amber grain, waving at them in the wind, and see the beautiful goodness inherent in the scene. These people knew the difference between good poetry and bad; between good entertainment and trash; between a good tree and a useless bush; between truth and a lie; between a good man and a dangerous fool; between a priceless woman and a cheap harlot. They knew the difference. These were people that knew that right is not just right; it’s the pathway to life. 
And when you know that these glorious realities exist, and you know that they are your way to life, you are willing to sacrifice for them - to expend blood, sweat and tears, to see these glories be born, mature, and then to protect them from threats. Our forefathers knew how to live, because they knew of things so good and glorious that were worth dying for. 
Die they so often did - on ships getting here; during countless plagues that swept the New World; in our first wars, and in many since; and in the social battles for societal justice - our forefathers died, for unchanging goodnesses and glories. 
Today we live a different storyline. We are so secure and rich, and yet depression and suicidality and drug use are rampant. We don’t want to live, ironically, because we have nothing worth dying for. We’ve discovered the hard way that a vapid, superficial life of ease and security is no life at all. Thus the question: what changed? What did our forefathers have that we lack?
The Answer
The answer is God. We lack God. When any people, no matter their prior greatness, tries to become their own kings, living by their own logic, apart from submission to the wisdom of God, out from under His rules and Word, that people will mess everything up - relationships, economies, sexuality - you name it, we will muck it up. As Chesterton put it, when a people stops believing in God, it’s not that they then believe in nothing - it’s then that they will believe in anything. Anything but the truth. And when a people stops believing in the most high God, it’s not that they stop looking for great power - they just look for it on earth. And often it will land on the strong-men of earth. Thus it’s no coincidence that we have ceded so much power to our state. 
But the way and the truth that leads to life is only found beyond us, in Another. Jesus proved that he himself is the unchanging wisdom of God, by his resurrection from the dead. He proved therefore that there is an unchanging good, an unshakeable beauty that exists. It exists and it can be found. In Him. Our forefathers knew that beauty, at least in part, because they knew him - or at least a worldview that grew from him. 
They possessed this wisdom because they were taught the Bible in school, at the dinner table, before bed, in church, in Sunday School, and along way, to and fro. They were taught a “biblical worldview,” to such a degree that that phrase would have been incomprehensible to them. Isn’t that, like, the water we swim in? They were taught, and they were