‘A city on a hill’: Revival will return America to its original purpose, says Sen. Hawley

The United States of America needs a revival to return to its sacred principles, founded upon the covenant to be a “city on a hill,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, said in a college lecture Thursday, drawing on the words of colonial preacher John Winthrop.

“There is a direct bond between revival and liberty, and that is because our republic, our nation, depends on the character, the heart of our people, and liberty cannot be maintained unless the heart of the American people is true and good and pure,” Hawley said in his address at Boyce College and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Hawley was delivering the 2026 Duke K. McCall Leadership Lecture, during which he praised the Baptist denomination for its historical zeal for revival.

“If we’re going to see revival in this country, we’ve got to see men and women who are on fire for the Lord in this country,” he said.

The Missouri senator referenced the Mayflower Compact as “the DNA” of America, which established the country as a godly commonwealth “to worship the Lord in the freedom of their consciences.”

“What birthed us as a nation was the covenant taken by a group of Christians to walk together before God, to pursue liberty before God, to be a godly nation, a godly commonwealth, to live in righteousness before the Lord,” Hawley said. “I just want to say to you I believe that is still our destiny.”

This original pledge birthed the American ideals of individual rights, conscience and liberty from the gospel of redemption, he said.

Hawley preached from 2 Samuel 24, which he called “a turning point in Israel’s history” – drawing parallels to America today. In that Bible passage, the Lord commands David to erect an altar in the exact location of a plague harming the people – the same place David’s son Solomon would one day build the temple: Mt. Moriah.

Likewise, America suffers certain afflictions today, Hawley said, and Christians must raise up altars to claim these corrupt places for the Lord.

“We need to go to the crises in this nation and erect an altar to claim that ground for the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said. “We need to raise up an altar over the places of crisis in the United States of America.”

Hawley cited three areas of crisis: sanctity of life, family and manhood.

“We will not consent to this lie, this attack on our children and on our families and on the basic principle of manhood and womanhood in this society,” he said.

He mourned that more abortions occur in America today than when abortion was legal nationally under Roe v. Wade, which he admitted he never thought would be overturned. His wife Erin was involved in oral arguments in the case. But Christians must not assume the battle is won and instead must oppose chemical abortion pills that account for more than 70% of abortions in America, he said.

Hawley also addressed the threats against marriage and family, especially from leftist gender ideology bombarding Americans through media. Additionally, record-low numbers of men are marrying and having kids, and many men wrongly believe that masculinity is “toxic” or that true manhood is mere “dominance.”

“The Lord calls you men to something more, and your lives are central to the revival of this nation as a culture,” he said. “We have to reclaim that truth, and we have to raise up healthy examples of biblical masculinity to say that we need strong men.”

Marriage and family should be the Christian “north star” and “signpost,” Hawley also said, lamenting the economic crisis in America that burdens families. Fifty years ago, anyone without a college degree could support a wife and family on a single salary, but today that is nearly impossible, he said. But, today, if both parents work for financial stability, “YouTube, Netflix or the government” will raise the kids.

“We need an economy where a man can support himself and his wife and family by the work of his hands, not dependent on government, not dependent on somebody else, by the work of his own hands,” Hawley said.

However, the senator believes the key to genuine revival is ultimately spiritual, requiring “real, thorough, inward change of heart,” as 18th-century evangelist George Whitefield said.

“The Kingdom of God will only expand in this country as we lay our lives down on the altar and receive from the Lord the fire of His presence,” Hawley said. “He deserves all that we have. We give our utmost for his highest.”

“God still has a call on this country,” Hawley concluded. “He meant us to be a godly commonwealth, ‘a city on a hill,’ that shows to the world what it looks like to live according to the truth of the Lord Jesus, to show to the world what the blessings of righteousness truly are.”