Ad nauseam discussion of fiscal cliffs and the ongoing War on Christmas has led me to wax philosophical this December, Save Jerseyans.
I have a favorite print hanging in my law office featuring General George Washington kneeling in the woods. Alone. At prayer.
Just the man communing with his God in a cathedral of nature.
I’m a lifelong Roman Catholic and the great grandchild of poor immigrants, but that stirring image of a wealthy Protestant president-in-waiting has always best represented my conception of religion’s proper role in American public discourse.
From the founding forward, a majority of Americans have firmly believed in God, and His goodness, and the reality that God has consistently shown special favor for the American Experiment. It’s never been a taboo topic. Not because Americans are a “chosen” race destined to rule others, but because we unshakably believe our liberty-based system is superiorly compatible with Judeo-Christian principles and, as such, is the last best hope for mankind.
We won’t tell you how to worship in this country. This is a nation of choice, not blood, genetic or birthright. We do, however, openly believe all human beings “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Did you ever stop to ponder the significance of those nine words from Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence?
You really should…
Contrary to popular believe, the phrase “separation of church and state” can’t be found in any of our founding documents. Thomas Jefferson did champion an end to the Anglican Church’s formal entanglement in Virginian government; he also insisted that his magnum opus explicitely recognize how rights flow directly from God to a nation’s citizenry.
No intermediaries or qualifiers were provided for or acknowledged.
It’s not especially difficult to follow Jefferson’s thought process to its natural conclusion, folks. Rights can’t flow from governments in a free society. If they did, government’s power would be uninhibited and dictatorships would become the norm. Our rights cannot possibly derive from ourselves, either, since their character would be somewhat subjective. Not even “nature” generally is a sufficiently logical source; after all, man can use reason and science to dominate certain, limited aspects of his natural environment.
Jefferson and the other Founders instinctively knew only a system where rights descended from the Heavens could sufficiently restrain government’s natural tendency to consolidate power and trample individual property rights. The only real threat under this scenario? A theocracy where one individual or group of individuals is capable of forcing their version of God’s word on everyone else in civil society.
Hence, we see the rationale for Jefferson’s superficially inconsistent yet substantively magnificent vision of a country where God-given rights were protected from the tyrannical impulses of politicians and preachers alike.
So this Christmas, Save Jerseyans, you’ll know precisely what to say when Uncle Bob complains about the manger outside a local high school and Cousin Alice whines about supposed Republican inclinations to “push religion” on voters.
American-style freedom depends, in part, on the free exercise of (or voluntary abstention from) faith. “Religion” is a private matter affirmatively and negatively. You nevertheless cannot separate God and freedom in the public sphere any more than you can enjoy an Oreo without the stuffing. Everything we have comes from Him. He is the basis of our natural rights. And if they don’t come from Him, we’re in big trouble as a free people.
Merry Christmas, Matt!
"You know, if we look back through history to all those great civilizations, those great nations that rose up to even world dominance and then deteriorated, declined, and fell, we find they all had one thing in common. One of the significant forerunners of their fall was their turning away from their God. … Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."
– Ronald Reagan, 1984