Independence Day

I just thought I'd share some of my thoughts before the 4th of July and reflect back to where our independence truly comes from, our Creator.

The Declaration of Independence states the source of our liberties quite clearly: "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."

These truths were so important to our founders that they staked their lives on them. In their own words: "And for the 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."

Paul Harvey, in his book, Our Lives, Our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor, gave some short facts about what happened to the 56 signers of the declaration: "Of the fifty-six, few were long to survive. Five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes...from RhodeIsland to Charleston...sacked, looted, occupied by the enemy, or burned. Two lost their sons in the army. One had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six died in the war, from its hardships or from its more merciful bullets."

The Declaration of Independence was no idle pledge, nor was it a way to get rich. George Washington lost much of his fortune during the eight year revolutionary war as he commanded the American army for absolutely no pay. He returned to Mt Vernon deeply in debt and worked many years to restore his run-down plantation to the state it was in before he left. In his first inaugural address he stated: "It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people."

With each passing year the separation between church and state grows ever wider. Jefferson wrote: "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis; a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?"

In Stone vs. Graham, the court ruled that the Ten Commandments are not to be posted in schools. "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the school children to read, meditate upon, and perhaps venerate and obey, the Commandments...not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause."

Again Jefferson wrote: "On every question of construction, carry yourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."

This independence day I hope we can remember the source of all of our liberties, and remember the wisdom of our founding fathers who infused the worship of God into our government. Let us remember the God who granted us our freedoms and the founding fathers who risked all and gave all so that we may be partakers of those freedoms.