Using the image of the dog above to represent our culture, with the main body of the dog being the predominant perspectives of the culture. In a system like ours, where the people elect the leaders, politics is the tail of the dog. Winning elections requires a candidate largely hold the views of those they seek to represent, hence they follow culture like a tail follows a dog.

Another way this has been put is to win elections candidates must position themselves within the Overton window (the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population) for the region they seek to represent. Much polling is done to try to determine the Overton window, but the point is, in a society where the leaders are democratically elected, politics follows culture.

So, if you are frustrated at the weakening policy positions of your preferred political party or some of its candidates, as is the case for many conservative Republicans this year, don’t be lured in to thinking the fix is within politics. We do need to do our duty and participate in politics, but we must come to terms that real change will come from the head, not the tail. Most politicians, Trump included, are pragmatic and so are highly influenced by the culture, because their main goal is winning elections.

As the head steers the dog, it is trusted societal institutions that shape culture. Yet today there is major distrust of pretty much every societal institution we have – government, the legal system, academia, healthcare, food sources, and even churches. No society can endure without trust in its institutions.

Every society has its institutions and those institutions are based on a foundational set of beliefs that deal with core elements of life, for example beliefs about life’s origin, meaning, morality and destiny.

The foundational ideas in early America, which unleashed unparalleled freedom and prosperity, where ideas rooted in the Bible and taught in the churches, which were central to society, while also separate from the state.

Thus America, as a nation, was birthed in a society highly fluent in Biblical teaching, and the application of those teachings to every area of life and society – government, economics, education, family, business, etc. Church leaders understood clearly that the mission of the church was to shape societal thinking, by shaping the thinking of the individual with the truth from God’s Word (disciple nations, Matthew 28:18-20). As such, the churches were the primary influences of the Overton window and created a population with such a strong internal law that they had no need for extensive civil laws telling them how they must behave.

The blessings of limited-government and free-markets can only become a reality when the population holds a strong internal law that is followed out of desire, not fear. The church is uniquely equipped for the task, but it has to start rebuilding its own understanding that the Bible does teach to every area of life and society. Nothing is beyond the reach of Biblical teaching, not even politics. Pastors must rethink the narrow Christianity they learned in Bible school and seminary and embrace Christianity as a complete worldview that not only is relevant to all of life, but it is the key to a flourishing society and is indispensable to maintaining order, without an authoritarian form of government.

It should be no surprise that as Americans have rejected Biblical principles and traded the pursuit of truth for pleasure, comfort, money and/or power, institutional trust has eroded and civil laws have multiplied.