The Pillars of Creation: Order Stands Behind Beauty
Building a society that seeks the common good with humility and hope
The “Pillars of Creation” remind us that order stands behind beauty. That’s the James Webb image at the top of this post showing the star-forming gas and dust—building blocks set within rules—birthing stars. Pillars hold up more than matter; they hold meaning.
For two millennia, Christianity has functioned as a cultural pillar of the West: not a state church, but a shared moral frame. People are imperfect; Christian societies have done grievous wrongs. Yet common beliefs about the dignity of the person, truth-telling, covenant and mercy gave neighbors a way to live together—and a way to repent when they failed. Governments should protect liberty, but they must never claim the place of the one true Sovereign in our lives.
Yes, we may recline in satisfaction as we discover more about the Creator’s universe, but the awe belongs to the Creator who set forth its rules. These rules are scientific. But the rules of how we choose to live in the human world are not.
Because God gives us free will, there are choices to be made in the human world. The process on making such choices led to The Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment did not arrive on a whim. It was deeply shaped by Christian natural-law reasoning about God-given rights, while also insisting on toleration, free inquiry, and limits on power. Debate was possible because citizens largely shared a moral language—even when they disagreed about theology or policy.
Over the past 20 years, technology has amplified envy, fear, and tribal rage at scale. Without a shared moral pillar, what restrains the will to power—ours or our rivals’? A bare majority’s preference? A loud minority’s pressure? Small, committed groups can indeed bend institutions. If our common moral grammar fractures, freedom becomes fragile.
This fracture seemed to be a foregone conclusion. From 1900 to 2020, according to the Center for the study of Global Christianity by the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Christians as a percentage of world population edged down over the long 20th century. Remarkably, in 2025 the percentage is increasing (and projected to increase; see chart below). Percentages don’t prove faithfulness, but they do shape the cultural air a society breathes.
Jesus summarized just two laws to obey: love God with all your heart; love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37–39). That is not a government program. It is a people shaped by worship, truth, repentance, and courage. When citizens embody that ethic, governments can remain limited; when they don’t, governments will try to become gods.
The Pillars image points to a deeper reality: creation has a Creator. If we forget Him, we will enthrone counterfeits—money, power, prestige—and they will rule us cruelly. But if we remember the Giver of life and order our lives to Him, we can still build a society that seeks the common good with humility and hope.
Peace.