You Tube Theology

On September 30, 2025, the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions hosted a panel, titled, "Do We Still 'Hold these Truths'? The Declaration of Independence at 250", featuring Matthew J. Franck, Elizabeth Kaufer Busch, and Jeffrey Rosen, and moderated by Robert P. George.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” So said the founders of our Nation, but as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the United States, we pause to ask: Do we Americans still “hold these truths”? Do we maintain the faith of the Founders? Or have we abandoned it? Our distinguished panel will reflect on these timely questions.

Matthew J. Franck is Visiting Lecturer in Politics at Princeton University, Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Radford University. Formerly associate director of the James Madison Program, he is a senior contributing editor of Public Discourse, and has published in The Dispatch, National Review, First Things, the Wall Street Journal, National Affairs, The New Atlantis, American Political Thought, and the Review of Politics, and has written, co-edited, or contributed to books published by the University Press of Kansas, Lexington Books, Cambridge University Press, and Oxford University Press.

Elizabeth Kaufer Busch is the Laura and Pete Walker Professor in American Studies, Co-Director of the Center for American Studies, and Director of American Studies at Christopher Newport University. Before joining the faculty at CNU, she previously held positions at Berry College and Emory University. She earned a Ph.D. in political science from Michigan State University, with specializations in American Politics and Political Theory. Busch has been appointed to the Civics and America's Future Task Force, one of several committees created by America250 – the nonpartisan commission established by Congress to prepare for a nationwide commemoration of America's Semiquincentennial Anniversary. She also serves on the board of directors of the Jack Miller Center for Founding American Principles and History and the Virginia Institute for American History. Her research focuses on civic education, administrative lawmaking, and the role that our evolving conceptions of sex, gender, and equality have on public policy. She is co-author or co-editor of Democracy Revisited: Essays on the American Regime (2009), Civic Education and the Future of American Citizenship (2012), and Title IX: The Transformation of Sex Discrimination in Education (2018). She (with William Thro) is currently working on a number of writing projects focusing on reclaiming what they term the "American Proposition" in an "Anti-Constitutional Culture," a project for which Busch has been awarded funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Busch was the recipient of Christopher Newport University's Alumni Society Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring.

Jeffrey Rosen is the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for the New Yorker. Rosen’s new book, Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle over Power in America, is out in October 2025. His other books include New York Times bestsellers The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America and Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law, as well as biographies of Louis Brandeis and William Howard Taft. Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College; Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School. In 2024, the French government recognized him as a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.