The instructive motto of the State of Hawaii is a result of the influence of the Protestant missionaries who first came to Hawaii in 1820. It expresses a great truth in the Hawaiian language: Ua mau ke ia o ka aina i ka pono, which means, “The life of the land is preserved in righteousness.”

Righteousness is what preserves a nation, not a Declaration of Independence or a Constitution, and not even Congress or its laws. What sustains and perpetuates a national identity is the righteousness of its people—the reflection of their recognizing their need for God, worked out in their relationships with one another.