Straight Talk for Family Leaders: Religion Begat Prosperity . . .

Most every family leader wants to leave a legacy lasting generations.  It’s an appealing and rewarding idea to see one’s vision, intelligence, hard work, success and values sustained and celebrated for family and cherished causes, bearing fruit long after passing on.  Legions of multi-family offices, personal bankers, estate planners, trust administrators, tax specialists and family coaches are ready to help you create and execute plans for an enduring legacy.  The only problem, as most family leaders know, is the very large percentage will fail.

The consensus understanding of that problem, and the predominant approach by family counselors, focuses on two main causes:  the issue of head vs heart; and, the ill preparation of heirs.  The head versus heart issue recognizes the differences between the quantitative and qualitative aspects life and wealth.  This approach may identify that there are usually two family CEO’s – the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Empathy Officer.   Financial statements, legal documents, foundation charters and disbursement schedules may serve the one CEO, but never capture the whole picture of family capital or its meaning for the founder and family as defined by the second CEO.  The result is that the answer to the question, “Why?” is missing, and without the Why, the necessary family buy-in, commitment and impetus for successful legacy building are missing. 

Ill preparation of heirs considers the many false assumptions founders hold about their heirs, and/or the shortcomings in training heirs receive to prepare them to successfully secure and manage the family legacy.  Wealth creators may assume that heirs have the same life values, work ethic, interest in the same causes and aptitude for management, finance and investments, while heirs may have disdain for wealth, disinterest in work, disapprove of the founder’s favored causes and a disconnection from numbers.  The largest issues are commonly lack of defined and unified family meaning and mission and critical family legacy perpetuation roles filled by members unqualified by preparation, ability and interest. The inclusion of in-laws and exclusions of divorce unfortunately increase challenges to the maintenance of family unity and wealth.

All of the dismal news above, well known to family leaders, is summarized for three reasons:

First, let’s recognize that the successful transfer of wealth from one generation to the next with the goal of establishing an enduring family legacy has been a rare accomplishment, in the best of times; and,

Second, we are now far past and rapidly accelerating away from the best of times, suggesting renewed and even greater challenges to successful wealth transfer; and,

Three, without clear understanding and approach, the successful transfer of wealth will become an even greater rarity – starting right now and in the years ahead!

What do we mean by the best of times?

What do we mean by being far past  and rapidly accelerating away from the best of times?

What do we mean by a clear understanding and approach?

The best of times refers to the post WWII period of history known as the Pax Americana.    This period beginning in 1945 until the present, covering 76 years or roughly three generations of American families, has been a time of relative peace founded upon the United States of America as the leading economic and military power in the world.  Untouched by the ravages of war at home, a single vibrant enterprise, America, Inc., met a wide open global market quaking with pent up demand and free from competition.  America’s financial and economic power, our capital, labor and business instincts met the unprecedented global opportunity of rebuilding a world torn by war desirous of social, political and economic liberty and the improving quality of life that freedom and commercial progress promised.  The period was simply perhaps the best time in human history for the creation, accumulation and direction of private wealth.  Quite critically, Americans shared a common understanding and belief in the pillars of American identity underwriting our power:  Christianity and its values and work ethic; Constitutional Democratic Republic; and, Free Market Capitalism.

By being far from and rapidly accelerating away from the best of times, we mean the increasing cultural abandonment of and animosity toward the institutions defining our American identity.  We will revisit this later.

To explain what we mean by a clear understanding and approach, we return to our title and ‘Religion Begat Prosperity . . .’   The full quotation, typically attributed to Cotton Mather is, “Religion brought forth Prosperity, and the daughter destroyed the Mother.”  Mather borrowed the phrase from an earlier Latin epigram of St. Bernard, the 12th century Abbott of Clairvaux, and for our purposes, both subject and predicate require discussion.

Cotton Mather, a Puritan minister from a long line of Puritan ministers, was a leading intellectual of the Colonial period in New England.  He graduated from Harvard College in 1678, earned a Dr. of Divinity degree from the University of Glasgow and was a member of the Royal Society of London.  Among his many published works is the Magnalia Christi Americana (The Ecclesiastical History of New England).  In it, discussing the character of the people in New England, Mather writes, 

“Their chief hazard and symptom of degeneracy, is in the verification of that old observation, Religio peperit Divitias, et filia devoravit matrem: ‘Religion brought forth Prosperity, and the daughter destroyed the mother.’  One would expect that as they grew in their estates, they would grow in the payment of their quit-rents unto the God who gives them power to get wealth, by more liberally supporting his ministers and ordinances among them.  There is a danger lest the enchantments of this world make them forget their errand into the wilderness; and some woeful villages in the skirts of the Colony, beginning to live without the means of grace among them, are still more ominous intimations of the danger.”

As for the subject, let’s briefly review how ‘Religion brought forth Prosperity.’  

Weatlh creation is organic and as with all organisms requires a supportive ecosystem to flourish.  Wealth is created, and uniquely, in America, by our wealth creating heritage, what we call the Earthly Trinity and the Light and Envy of the World.  With the creation of the United States of America, three philosophical and practical constructs came into existence, at the same time, for the first time in history:  political, economic and religious freedom.  The convergence of Christianity with a Constitutional Democratic Republic and Free Market Capitalism formed the foundational furnace that fueled the spark of human advance unprecedented and unimagined in human history.

The year 1776 not only saw the Black Robe Regiment of Christian clergy justify that America declare Independence from Britain, but also the publishing of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.  After the King James Bible probably the most influential book in human history, Wealth of Nations explained how politically free people acting in their own economic self-interest with like minded others in a free market created an expansion of productivity and prosperity benefitting all members of society.  

And what of a Constitutional Democratic Republic?  We see that God established his Law with the Ten Commandments.  He decreed individual liberty and equality.  And traditions of democracy and republican government were tenants of Gaelic Christian faith from the first century.  It’s little noted that the Consent of the Governed ethic entered written history with Augustine’s 603AD letter to Pope Gregory, exasperated at the Gaelic Abbott Dinoot’s refusal to conform to Roman rites without the ‘consent of his people.’  Or that the principle was formalized by Duns Scotus in 1300 in his exposition on social contracts referencing the ancient Clan family practices.  Leaders elected from among a peer group of equals was a Gaelic heritage from the earliest times, conformed to Druidic and Christian customs and informed Scottish Presbyterianism, the Scottish Enlightenment and the education, experience and practice of our Founding Fathers.  It may be seen that the Protestant Reformation freed Man from Rule of the Church and the republican theology of the Scottish Enlightenment freed Man from the Rule of Kings.  Indeed, ‘No Bishop, No King’ was a rallying cry of first of the Scottish Covenanter movement, and when thousands were exiled to the Colonial shores, a call to Political and Religious Independence in America.

And what of wealth?  People everywhere want wealth but what is wealth?  The first thing to understand about wealth is that you don’t want the kind of wealth you can get, or else someone will come and get it from you.  There are really just two kinds of wealth – Wealth that is Captured; or wealth that is Created.

Wealth abounds upon the Earth and from the first, Man sought to Capture it – fruit from the trees; fish from the sea; meat from the herds; water from the streams and gold from the ground.  Life was mostly conflict between those who had captured the wealth, and those who sought to capture it again, from them, for themselves.  This near continual conflict over finite wealth defines most of the last 12,000 years of human history.  Musical Chairs.  The Capture Conflict Game continues today and in many ways is widening and intensifying. 

Wealth is also Created, by either Compulsion or Consciousness.  Slavery is the ultimate example of creation of wealth through Compulsion.  Masters control and command the affairs of Man, and slaves comply, with no right to their labor, its product or service.  Compulsion in one form or another has monopolized the Creation of Wealth throughout history, and it too, more recently, is expanding its presence worldwide.

Wealth Creation through Consciousness requires thinking and acting in the exercise of selfhood.  Here the individual makes the decisions about how to think and how to act for themselves, in their self-interest and in concert with other people of similar liberty and disposition.  It is a relatively new paradigm of only the last couple of centuries, and only narrowly adopted among the people of the world, today less than 15% of the global population. Incredibly, for being so recent in history and such a minority demographically it is also responsible for the cataclysmic explosion of new wealth all around the world.  Most of the wealth in the world today has been Created through Consciousness in the last 200 years and most of that in just the last 75 – barely two lifetimes within families. Here is a chart from JP Morgan – notice the hockey stick of progress for the Christian West and US from the inception of the United States, and especially since World War II:

To think and act for oneself requires freedom.  Freedom is not about where you live, freedom is about what lives in you.  People the world over want freedom.  It is within their nature, and their desire is further driven by the rapid advance in global life expectancy, literacy, education and communications.  Great migrations of people seeking freedom are part of the world’s history and today’s headlines.  But Freedom is not a location.  

Freedom is a way of life.  We just saw how thinking and acting in the exercise of selfhood is a relatively recent and isolated development.  Ah, development.  We will return to that shortly.  Selfhood is relatively new because it requires freedom – an ECOSYSTEM of SELFHOOD that until the last 250 years never previously existed in history.

An ecosystem is a preconditioned environment of interacting forces that allow and promote organic life and success.  What are the elemental forces of the Ecosystem that must interact?  We will touch on:

Creation

Love

Discovery   

Discernment

Progress

For the Self to think and act it must be free to exist.  Christian advocates of “rights given by God the Creator” to self existence spelled out a new relationship elevating Man’s Natural Rights over King or Bishop, State or Church.

For the Self to exercise self interest, it must be free to enjoy the fruits of its labors.  Christian advocates for demonstrating Love of mankind through individual civil liberties and private property spelled out a new relationship elevating the Individual over the Group and Collective, State or Church.

For the Self to understand its self interests, it must follow a system of inquiry leading to Discovery. Christian advocates of deductive reasoning and the scientific method delivered escape from the binding precedents and rituals of the past and a new focus on a future of increased understanding.

For the Self to successfully apply discoveries it must be free to practice Discernment.  Christian advocates of change worked out the benefits of identifying good, better, and best qualities and applying discernment in judging value in thought, word and practice.

For the Self to exercise its available, understood and principled self interests entailed advance from one state of mind or conduct to an improved state of mind or conduct.  Christian advocates of Progress gave rise to the physical sciences that identified the laws of Nature, and the social sciences that gave rise to the laws of Man.

This then is the Ecosystem of SelfHood that is required as a precondition for the Creation of Wealth through Consciousness.  Another way of defining it is the work ethic of piety, honesty, justice, humility, industry, thrift and charity within a society of similarly free and like minded people enjoying civil, economic and religious freedom.  The Earthly Trinity.  The Light and Envy of the World.  Christianity.  Constitutional Democratic Republic.  Free Market Economic System.  Uniquely and definitively – America.

Whether you are a Bible believer or simply a student of history, it is clear that progress in the human condition on earth is down stream from Christianity; respect for life, human dignity, healthcare and hospitals, literacy and learning.  And perhaps most importantly, freedom, equality and opportunity, born of republican democracy and free market capitalism.  Simply, the essential preconditions, the life giving and sustaining ecosystem to create, control and keep wealth, did not exist until the creation of the United States. 

Noah Webster, “Father of American Scholarship and Education” author of the “Blue Backed Speller” that taught five generations of Americans to read and write, and publisher of the Dictionary that bears his name, in Value of the Bible and Excellence of the Christian Religion, 1834, had this to say, 

“Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the Christian religion. Men began to understand their natural rights, as soon as the reformation from popery began to dawn in the sixteenth century; and civil liberty has been gradually advancing and improving, as genuine Christianity has prevailed. The religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.“

It has really been the best of times and truly, Religion begat Prosperity, with broad consensus about American identity.  And what of the predicate?  In what way has ‘the daughter devoured the Mother’ such that we are far from and rapidly accelerating away from the best of times? 

As in Mather’s time, Prosperity is downstream from Religion, but the material wealth, high standard and ease of living, health, opportunity, education, physical safety and worldly distractions make it easy to be irreligious. A post-Christian cultural justification for personal satisfaction crowds out religious morality as well as the easy affluence of the decades of the Pax Americana underwrites a religion of self with little room for God.  Where our forefather believed in God, sought and celebrated His Divine Providential blessings, outside of a shrinking Christian center, the expanding balance of our National culture does not believe in God or care about His will.

In a September 2019 Atlantic article, “Three Decades Ago, America Lost its Religion. Why?” author Derek Thompson explained, 

“No rich country prays nearly as much as the U.S, and no country that prays as much as the U.S. is nearly as rich.  America’s unique synthesis of wealth and worship continued deep into the 20th century, as more than nine in 10 Americans said they believed in God and belonged to an organized religion, with the great majority of them calling themselves Christian.  But in the early 1990s, the historical tether between American identity and faith snapped. Religious non-affiliation in the U.S. started to rise—and rise, and rise. By the early 2000s, the share of Americans who said they didn’t associate with any established religion (also known as “nones”) had doubled and by the 2010s, tripled in size.  The rise of religious non-affiliation in America looks like one of those rare historical moments that is neither slow, nor subtle, nor cyclical. You might call it exceptional.  The rise of the nones shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the religious identity that seems to be doing the best job at both retaining old members and attracting new ones is the newfangled American religion of Nothing Much at All.”

Thompson asserts that the first big reason to care about the accelerating trend toward irreligion is demographics, as those without religious affiliation are more likely to be young adults with their irreligious lives of flexible morality ahead of them.

A second consideration is that irreligion has a correlation with political expression; the young adults in the growing irreligious segment of our population are increasingly liberal in their viewpoints:

A third consideration for our argument to family leaders is that many of today’s liberal political positions are divergent from traditional American values.  In 2017 New York Times article, The Collapse of American Identity, Robert Jones quoted comments made in 1921 by British social critique G.K. Chesterton:

“‘America is a nation with the soul of a church’ referring to its formation around a set of core political beliefs enshrined in founding “sacred texts,” like the Declaration of Independence.  The United States did not rely on ethnic kinship, cultural character or a “national type” for a shared identity.  The profoundness of the American experiment, was creation of “a home out of vagabonds and a nation out of exiles” united by voluntary assent to commonly held political beliefs.”

Jones goes on to say, “But recent survey data provides troubling evidence that a shared sense of national identity is unraveling, as mutually exclusive narratives emerge in reaction to changing demographics and culture.”  

Beyond the loss of prior generations’ consensus about American identity, modern Liberals as a powerful and growing political segment of the population embrace viewpoints antagonistic toward foundational American institutions of Christianity, Constitutional Democratic Republic and Free market economics.

For example in challenging Christian values, Liberals object to definitions of men and woman based on biological sex, advocate for same sex marriage, support virtually any type of sexual  relations including the sexualization of children, advocate for abortion, abolition of prayer in schools and civic ceremony, increasingly object to any celebration or recognition of God in public and by reliable reports omitted ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance during their Democratic National Convention in August, 2020.

Thomson concluded, 

“American politics is at risk of becoming a war of religiosity versus secularism by proxy, where both sides see the other as a catastrophic political force that must be destroyed at all costs.  A gap has opened up between America’s two political parties. In a twist of fate, the Christian right entered politics to save religion, only to make the Christian-Republican nexus unacceptable to millions of young people—thus accelerating the country’s turn against religion.”

In confronting our Constitutional Democratic Republic, Liberals attack the separation of powers,  bring unConstitutional impeachments against both President and former President, threaten to stack the Supreme Court, disband the Electoral College that guards against the ‘tyranny of the majority,’ promote Statehood for solidly Democrat District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to increase their partisan power in Congress, advocate against the Constitutional right to bear arms protected by the 2nd Amendment, the right to privacy protected by the 4th Amendment and support suppression of the protected rights of Conservatives to Free Speech, Free Press and Freedom of Assembly.

In efforts undermining free markets and Capitalism, Liberals have launched a broad assault seeking to mandate equality of outcome in place of equality of opportunity and deploy policy to shift to a Statist command economy directed to popular progressive causes:  globalism, socialism, environmentalism, climate change, social justice, universal healthcare, race relations, reparations, increased income taxes upon a progressive structure, universal basic income, expanded government spending and a larger government.   To what end?  As Milton Friedman stated: ‘Everywhere capitalism has been tried, it has succeeded. Everywhere socialism has been tried, it has failed. The lesson learned? We need more socialism!’

Beside those confrontations targeted against Christianity, our Constitution and Capitalism, Liberals attack our culture of liberty, independence, equality and self-reliance more generally with historical revisionism, selective national memory, Woke/Cancel initiatives, critical race theory, intersectionality, victimology, relaxed enforcement of illegal immigration, censorship, intimidation and draconian executive mandates.  Are we to forget that angry progressives staged over 275 riots in American cities last summer, responsible for more than $2 billion in damages, 55 deaths and the toppling and destruction of statues of American Founding Fathers and heroes of our history like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln?  And all of that, virtually unpunished by Liberals in executive, law enforcement and judicial positions?

It may well be the case that such antagonisms against America’s identity are not present among your heirs, but such is the nature of many in your heirs’ generations, and of the environment your heirs will face in managing your wealth transfer and legacy.

This is a wholly unprecedented change in America.  This is what we mean by being far past and rapidly accelerating away from the best of times. 

If wealth transfer failed for seven of ten families during the best of times, founded upon a shared American identity underwriting an Ecosystem of Wealth Creation and Growth, who is prepared to succeed when our unique Ecosystem is under assault and near destruction? 

What is America without Christian morality and work ethic, our Constitutional Republic guaranteeing government by consent, liberty, equality and the rule of law, and Capitalism’s free markets for private commercial self-interest, opportunity, wealth creation and direction?

Beyond that very real question, family leaders are required to acknowledge three additional wild cards:  Covid, Statism and Corruption.  Is there anyone can accurately predict the length or severity of the government mandated dislocations in our culture, enterprises and economy justified by the Covid virus?  Or can predict which industries will be picked as winners and which left as losers by government bureaucrats?  Is someone able to illuminate in whom we can have trust and confidence among fiduciaries, markets or managements?  Government mandated shutdowns for Covid mitigation have lasted a year and initiated the greatest economic collapse in American history.  Government bureaucrats have destroyed vibrant and valuable industries by decree and malinvestment while lavishing public monies on favored States, and lackluster and worthless cronies.  Every major bank, brokerage, investment market and exchange has been found guilty of price fixing, self-dealing and corruption.

A 2019 Pew Research study determined that public trust in Government was near an all time low with only 17% believing Government “does the right thing most of the time.”  More, in the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer survey where a positive score is “trusted,” Government received negative Competence and Ethical scores.  The Barometer found further that trust in the Financial Services industry had eroded 5% further below the “trusted” 60% hurdle to 53%, second lowest among all industries surveyed, ahead of only Social Media.  And speaking of media, trust in Information Sources reached all time lows in the “not trusted” realm.  

Where in the world can family leaders and heirs place Trust?  Where can they be certain of the Truth, necessary to Trust?  Where can they look for hope and a future?

In the Gospel of John, 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”  Further, in John, 8:32 Jesus affirmed, “If you continue in my word, you are truly My disciples.  Then you will know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.”  More, the Bible is replete with God’s promises to protect, provide for and prosper his Children.  In just two examples, Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth   . . .”  And in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Whether you take the Bible to heart or simply read history, Christian faith is core to the identify of America, core to the Ecosystem of Wealth Creation and Preservation, and revivals or  Awakenings have occurred regularly throughout the Bible and in our history when popular culture has fallen from faith.  Truly, even considering the passing of two millennia since it was written in Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun.” Awakenings of Christian faith revive the spirit within us and guide us toward the improved personal morality necessary for the conduct of our affairs, our families and our communities.

Our Founding Fathers, Sons of the Scottish Enlightenment School of Common Sense Realism, knew political, economic, cultural and religious oppression and tyranny from the long history of the world and the more recent history of Europe. They created a system of government  designed to protect against those evils.  They also knew the necessity of personal virtue, believing that our system of government could only succeed among people with public virtue, and public virtue only possible among people of private virtue – such private virtue developed only among people with religion.  From many other examples, George Washington 1st President of the United States, in his Farewell Address to the Nation said, “Religion and morality are the great pillars of human happiness, the firmest props and the duties of men and citizens.  National morality can not exist in the exclusion of religious principle, virtue and morality, the products of religion, are the necessary spring of popular government.”   And 2nd President of the United States John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”   

Family leaders will benefit from understanding the necessity of a revised approach to the conduct of their affairs, their plans for the transfer of their wealth and establishment of their legacy.  Wealth created and expanded within the former beneficial Ecosystem of Christian, Constitutional, Capitalism faces an increasingly hostile environment in America and around the world.  Old approaches failed to consistently deliver in the best of times of the past, certainly renewed thinking and intentions are essential in our changed and changing world.  What to do and where to start?

The answers are simple and historically proven, both philosophical and practical.  The philosophical involves intentional commitment both internally and externally, across the individual, family and community dimensions.  Individuals benefit when they focus internally on renewing their relationship with God and externally on spiritual renewal within their families and community.  Families benefit when they focus internally on renewing their relationships with God and each other and externally when they focus on other individuals, families and the wider community.  The Community benefits when it focuses internally on renewing its relationship with God and each other, and externally when they focus on other individuals, families and communities.  

The practical involves repositioning activities and assets into the realms of tangible, private, controlled, decentralized and localized with self-reliance and self-sufficiency.  Eliminate the risk of  accepting falsehoods when only Truth will do, and of depending upon the untrustworthy when only Trust will do.  Take control personally and within your family of tangible assets, privately held, totally within your control, decentralized from concentrated management, localized for direct knowledge, management and benefit, reliant upon yourself and dependent upon yourself.

The historically proven result of such God honoring individuals, families and communities is enjoyment of God’s Providential protection, provision, progress and prosperity into posterity.  The Clan Legacy, from Icolmkill House Press, explains how the Gaelic Christian Clans of Scotland endured in this way for over 1,000 years.

As historically demonstrated by the Clans, their Abbeys and cultural descendants in America, such God honoring habits of life deliver a double benefit:  first of course, to the individuals, families and communities they create; second, to the nation and world at large.  The pages of history record that it was the Gaelic Clan traditions of liberty, self-sufficiency and self-rule that  collaborated with their Gaelic Christian Family Abbeys to nurture and then deliver the spark  of Civilization to a pagan barbarian world.  The lessons of liberty, literacy, learning, progress and prosperity and charity carried forward into the creation of the United States of America and the greatest rise in the human condition in world history.  Let’s rediscover faith in each individual, family and community centered upon and around Christian Family Abbeys and light the spark anew.

Scotus

Cotton Mather, The Magnalia Christi Americana, London, 1702

https://books.google.com/books?id=49JdS7NoSawC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Magnalia+Christi+Americana#v=onepage&q=Magnalia%20Christi%20Americana&f=false

Derek Thompson, Three Decades Ago, America Lost its Religion.  Why?, The Atlantic, September 26, 2019

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/atheism-fastest-growing-religion-us/598843/

Robert Jones, The Collapse of American Identity, The New York Times, May 2, 2017

Pew Research Center, Public Trust in Government: 1958-2019, April 11, 2019

Edelman, Edelman Trust Barometer 2021, Edelman

https://www.edelman.com/trust/2021-trust-barometer

photo credit: Gustave Dore, Abraham Journeying into the Land of Canaan,1866