“The happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend on piety, religion, and morality.”

We hold this truth to be self evident. Extending the list of preservatives, I add harmonizing with the laws of nature and of nature's God and justice.

Good thoughts, good works, good deeds ! Honesty to stand with thee, Charity to walk with thee. Seek after that which good is. Liberty and Freedom for all.

Without getting too much into 'religion' I would agree. Mike has distinguished religion several times as 'true piety in practice,' and with that I can agree.

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." J. Adams

"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea."
J. Madison

And yet the Left busies itself destroying such icons of virtue as George Washington, beginning in first grade by telling them that the cherry tree was just a story, in other words, GW lied.  Ask any kid who is over 7 (if they have attended public school) what they know of GW and the first words out of the mouth are, " He never chopped down that cherry tree". This has been occurring since 1998 at least, when my son came home from first grade to announce that i had told him a lie, having discussed the cherry tree with him prior to his teacher telling the class it was a lie.