The Lost Virtue of Patience

Cultural Renewal Won't Come by Force

Chuck Colson liked to say that the Kingdom of God will never arrive on Air Force One. It's still true. Any reprieve we've had in the last few years in the areas of religious liberty and the sanctity of life is coming to an end, and recent events should make the truth of ­Colson's statement obvious. Whether politics is upstream or downstream from culture (and the right answer is that it's really both), it is not the vehicle for lasting cultural change.

In fact, the history of Christianity shows that lasting cultural change rarely comes about in ways we are expecting. Christian influence requires that we Christians cultivate virtue in both our private and public lives. One virtue that once changed...