Observations©

Donald S. Conkey

Date: July 5, 2007 - # 927 – July 4, A Time to Reflect on Liberty (806)

America’s Founding Fathers would have been proud of Cherokee County’s July 4 celebrations with its flag raising ceremonies, its parades, its speeches, its fireworks – and for its obvious love for its country, its flag, and personal liberties.

Those Founders, they who willingly laid their lives on the alter of liberty, would also have been proud of the way Americans today continue to defend and die for the freedoms and liberties they fought for 231 years ago, restoring liberties and freedoms to a world then enslaved by tyranny.

However these Founders would likely have trouble understanding why America has allowed the few, often only one, to challenge the teaching of “religion and morals” in our schools, and win in the courts, especially when the cornerstone of America’s initial foundational document, the Declaration of Independence, states clearly America’s liberties are founding on “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Some schools today disallow the reading of the Declaration because   Jefferson wrote “God” in it. Yet these are the same people who use this document to ‘demand their rights’ even as they redefine the Founder’s original meaning of ‘rights.’

While pondering our 231^st Independence Day celebration my thoughts turned to ‘those signers’ who looked to the Bible’s “perfect laws of liberty” (James 1:22) for their primary guidance in severing their political ties with England. To supplement their understanding of the laws of  “Nature’s God” they studied the writings of the worlds greatest thinkers; Polybius, Locke, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Cicero, Blackstone, including in-depth studies of the Angle Saxons, plus others knowledgeable and learned in governments of free people down through the ages. But they totally rejected the writings of Plato.

In 1787, another defining year for America, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance. This law reflected congresses beliefs that a free people could not remain free being ignorant of religion, morality or knowledge. Article 3 states: “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” That congress knew religion and freedom were connected.

Benjamin Franklin’s religious creed, widely circulated, also played a vital role. It read: “I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points of all sound religion.”

His creed likely influenced the words in the Constitution’s Article VI that read: “… but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” and the First Amendment’s words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, …”

Do American’s really appreciate just how fundamental these words are today as the enemies of freedom continue their deadly onslaught on America’s freedoms, trying to remove all vestiges of religion from society?

Until the early twentieth century Americans understood that religion was a friend of society, not its enemy, with religion defined as a “fundamental system of beliefs concerning man’s origin and relationship with his fellowman;” with morality being “a standard of behavior distinguishing right from wrong,” and knowledge being “an intellectual awareness and understanding of established facts relating to any field of human experience or inquiry.” It was these men and women whose basic education was based in the Bible that built America.

These people also understood these words from Washington’s farewell adress: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. … Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligations desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education … reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

Americans were reminded during their Independence Day holiday that the battle for liberty never ends – terrorists attacked the Glasgow Scotland airport. This was in Scotland, not Iraq. Will the next car bombing be in the United States? It could be if the American people ignore Washington’s warnings or the fundamental principles of liberty embedded deeply in the document they are celebrating this week – their Declaration of Independence.