Colorado Christian University President Don Sweeting takes “no false comfort in the results of the election,” citing a “deeply divided nation” and the “spiritual drift of many millennials.”

In a wide-ranging statement on the presidential election, Sweeting congratulated Trump and Pence, writing that the “people have spoken and voted for a major course correction.”

Sweeting: While populism was a significant part of the Trump victory, we Christians lean back on first principles that inform our politics: That there is a God to whom nations are accountable; that government must be limited because the state is not God; that righteousness exalts a nation; and that true freedom is not essentially everyone doing what is right in their own eyes but is an ordered liberty that both fears God and honors His holy law.

We acknowledge that the sphere of politics, while very important, is not of ultimate importance. The gospel of Jesus Christ must always be our first message. Our ultimate hope is the kingdom of God.

As conservatives, we also acknowledge that conservative principles are not out of date. The essence of conservatism is the belief that politics is a limited activity. The most important realities are realities that are pre-political — faith, family, and culture. As Francis Beckwith recently said in a lecture on our campus, “The future of conservatism hinges on the growing of subsidiary institutions from which conservative thought naturally arises, i.e., churches, families, private schools and universities, and civic organizations.” We must attend to the vitality of these institutions.

CCU is private Christian University in Lakewood. It houses the Centennial Institute, a conservative think tank.