‘Living a virtuous life’: Students learn the importance of faith, sacrifice, freedom at 3rd annual Faith and Nation forum 

Faith is the foundation of America and must shape every Christian’s daily work and sacrifice, speakers told more than 300 high school seniors last week at a four-day camp-conference in Midlothian, Texas.

“That’s what you have to do if we’re going to have that connection of faith and nation. You got to understand, first and foremost, that faith is the foundation of this nation,” Lt. Col. Allen West of the Young America’s Foundation told the students.

Students representing 32 states gathered at Camp Hoblitzelle last week for the third annual Faith and Nation, a student forum created through a partnership between the Herzog Foundation and Young America’s Foundation. The camp aims to carry out the mission of the Herzog Foundation, publisher of Heartlander News, by investing in students from Christian schools across the country.

“All of you are now at a point in your life when you’re about to graduate in not that long, and you need to decide what your vocation is and what you’re going to devote your life to,” Herzog Board Chairman Todd Graves told the attendees. “Whether it’s politics, whether it’s being a farmer, whether it’s being a lawyer, whether it’s being a schoolteacher, anything that is your vocation, and that is how you feed His sheep.”

YAF arranged speakers to encourage students in biblical values of manhood and womanhood and to discuss America’s faith and governmental principles in contrast with those of socialist countries.

Biblical masculinity and femininity are both strong and humble

Nick and Tina Freitas discussed biblical masculinity and femininity in contrast with modern feminism’s messaging, which, they said, has created both cowardly and brash men.

Tina Freitas countered the false belief that biblical femininity is weak and that feminism frees women to be strong. Instead, biblical women were often “quietly devastating and powerfully protective,” she said, referencing the story of Jael, who killed a pagan commander in the Book of Judges.

“Feminism fights against creative order, and often leaves women exhausted and unfulfilled, or even psychologically broken,” she said, citing the decline in female happiness in the decades following the feminist movement. “Biblical femininity works with the created order. Second, it provides real, measurable fruit, joy, security and legacy.

“The Proverbs 31 woman’s family rises up to call her blessed. Her influence creates lasting security and honor.”

While feminism rejects motherhood and even celebrates the murder of children through the cultural normalization of abortion, biblical femininity protects and provides for sacred life, Tina Freitas explained.

“Motherhood is an honor, and nothing short of miraculous because, through her efforts, her sacrifices, her nurturing, comes a lasting legacy for generations to come,” she said. “When it comes to work and purpose, feminism measures a woman’s worth by her paycheck and corporate climb, often at the expense of home and family in pursuit of domination, often over men. The rallying cry is career first, family later, if ever.”

Nick Freitas continued the contrast between worldly messages to men and biblical masculinity, which, he said, culture claims is offensive but must be defended as truth.

“When I say be a man, that means that you should be capable of keeping your word, defending that which you love, protecting the innocent, regardless of fear, pain or danger. That’s what being a man means,” he said. “And when you do that in service to God, that’s what being a biblical man means.”

Nick Freitas outlined five areas – spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical and professional – in which men should conduct themselves according to God’s design. He refuted both the feminist push for men to be weak and passive and Andrew Tate’s message of uncontrolled passion and dominating masculinity.

“When I say, men, keep your emotions under control, I mean compartmentalizing in the moment of crisis, so you can be the calm in the storm, to be the safe part,” he said. “But I also mean being able to show the appropriate amount of tenderness and compassion and love and grace and mercy, just as Christ did. Yes, Christ offended sometimes because He preached judgment to the proud, but He demonstrated an incredible amount of mercy and grace to the broken.

“He showed that tenderness to the people that He loved and that loved Him.”

America’s freedom rejects socialism’s enslavement

Daniel Di Martino, another YAF speaker, shared his story of growing up under socialism in Venezuela, which devastated the country’s once-flourishing economy. Di Martino’s grandfather fled Spain for Venezuela, “the fourth richest country,” in the mid-20th century, but he and Di Martino later left the country after the government took complete control and the economy plummeted.

“There are uniformed military members in our grocery stores. We have the National Guard in our grocery stores, and they’re not there to protect us. They’re there to make sure that you do what you’re told, that you don’t dissent, that you don’t take pictures, for example,” Di Martino said. “And so, we had hyperinflation. Everything the government touched disappeared. We had massive refugees escaping as a consequence – 8 million people – the largest in the world, including myself and my grandfather.”

Socialism, by definition, means the government controls the means of production, Di Martino said, adding that when citizens become “employees of the government,” they become “dependent on politicians.”

In contrast, America’s governmental design is to protect fundamental human rights, not provide them, he explained.

Socialism includes “people who believe the government’s duty is to take care of you rather than to allow you to independently flourish,” he said, providing examples of common beliefs that, at their core, reveal socialist theories. “This is a more philosophical difference, and this is really what America was founded on: that the government’s duty is not to take care of us, but rather to protect us from external harm,” he said.

To avoid the pitfall of socialism, the U.S. government should “stop prohibiting competition” and “reduce regulation, to reduce taxes and eliminate import bans or tariffs,” he said.

“If I hear somebody say ‘healthcare is a right,’ they’re out for me. ‘Food is a right. Housing is a right.’ That’s all socialism,” Di Martino said. “The only right we have is life, liberty and profit. That’s what it is. And the job of the government is to protect those rights from being taken, not to give us new things.”

Gov. Scott Walker, YAF president and former Wisconsin governor, also reminded students that America was established as a small government to represent the people and protect their inherent, God-given human rights.

“Pursuit of happiness wasn’t about getting as much money or accomplishments. It was about the pursuit of happiness by serving and living a just life, living a virtuous life,” he said. “So, the founders said we’re all created equal. That God, not the government, grants us these rights, not the least of which are life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and that a government to be legit, to be just, has to be governed through the consent of the people.”

Called to hard work and sacrifice in a country of freedom

West, who concluded the forum, encouraged students that America’s freedom does not promise ease but instead requires self-discipline and hard work.

“Free does not equal freedom,” he said. “When people are giving you something for free, in essence, they are taking away your self-determination. They’re taking away your resolve. They’re taking away your drive.

“You want to get out there. You want to fight. You want to earn it for yourselves.”

Ultimately, Christians must imitate Christ through daily sacrifice for their families and others, he said, challenging students to choose 10 Bible verses to serve as their constant foundation through life’s joys and sorrows.

“Just the same as Christ went to the cross and He died so that we can have this thing called eternal life, there are things that you have to sacrifice for. There are things you have to commit yourself to,” he said. “There are things that you have to serve, like I did 22 years in the army. That’s this generation. That’s your challenge.”