0507 Public Religion
The Declaration of Independence is not only the foundation upon which the Constitution of the United States and the first amendment of the Constitution rests and through which they must be understood, but it is also a doctrinal statement which includes the worldview and vision for our union of states. Most Americans are very familiar with one Declaration of Independence phrase, “…all men are created equal…”, but few understand the importance of the rest of the proclamation.
The opening two sentences read as follows: “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them…” “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
The closing two sentences were penned, in part, as follows: “We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America … appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states…And for support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
Within the first two sentences our founders’ worldview is clear. God is referenced twice as He is a third and fourth time in the closing sentences where the fifty-six signers pledge their lives, fortunes, and honor. God is recognized as Law-giver, Creator, supreme Judge and the author of Divine Providence. He is called upon as the source of their rights, the focus of their appeals and the foundation of their protection.
After clearly stating God’s supremacy in every aspect of their sacred cause, the Declaration proclaims the relationship between government, the citizenry, and the rule of law from which our Constitution’s precepts spring. It correctly recognizes the government of our republic as caretaker, not dictator, of its citizens and those citizens as government’s sustaining life.
It was from this wisdom, for the purpose of establishing a revolutionary new system, that the founders’ vision was committed to written law in the Constitution of theUnited States. The same wisdom birthed the first set of guaranteed rights, the Bill of Rights, which contains the foremost statement of Divinely bestowed rights, the First Amendment. Notice the first right demanded in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” The prohibition is against the federal government as formulated in the remainder of the Constitution and includes, because Congress created it, the judiciary. The various signers’ concepts of God may be debated, but one thing is very clear – the present assault on public religion by the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, is in direct conflict with the fabric of our nation as demanded in our founding two documents.
There is only one church/state prohibition enshrined in our Declaration of Independence-interpreted Constitution, and that is a religion established by an act of Congress or the judiciary without “consent of the governed”. The “free exercise” of religion, even when recognized by municipalities, counties and states was built into the life-blood of the nation even in its birthing.
It is a sad turn of events, is it not, that two of the most sacred principles so treasured by those first patriots, public religion and the rule of law by the people, are the very two under the most sustained attack in the present life of our nation? Is it not time to recommit our nation to the One on whom its existence depends and begin anew to honor the spilt blood of patriots who fought (and are still fighting) to preserve the ideals declared at the inception of our independence?