God and the Republic

American Thinker ^ | December 25, 2010 | Ron Hunnicutt

[neverdem]

Progressives delight in proclaiming that God is not mentioned in the Constitution.  But the Declaration of Independence does mention our Creator in the first two paragraphs along with the last.  Our Declaration is the why of what our Founding Fathers did.  The Constitution is the how.  The Declaration is the foundation, and the Constitution is the structure or framework of our government.  The Declaration is act one, and the Constitution is act two.  Both acts make for a viable construct.  Leave one or the other out, and the whole becomes incoherent.

What is the purpose of the Constitution?  To set up a government that acknowledges our equality in God's eyes (and yes, the equality stops right there, except for the idea that all men should have equality before the law in a courtroom) and allows us to exercise our "unalienable rights," among other things.  The Declaration states our independence from tyranny, and so the obvious need for the Constitution is at hand.

If progressives wish to discount our Declaration or discount God's presence in the Declaration, then the purpose of our very existence as a nation becomes somewhat confused.  The Founders created a constitutional republic, but why?  For what purpose?  The Declaration gives the why and purpose.  A part of the Founders' justification for declaring independence was that King George III "broke covenant" with the colonists for many reasons, and "covenant" is a sober biblical concept.

Just so that we are clear about all of these matters, most Christians do not advocate a theocracy, although progressives delight in announcing otherwise.  It's just that the liberal construct of "separation of church and state" has mutated into state-enforced atheism.  The First Amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof[.]"  It is about Congress!  Not the people!  It does not say that Christians cannot influence or be involved in government.  It does not say that God has to be removed from anything government has its tentacles in.  It does not say that the ACLU can remove a Christian symbol at will or with the threat of litigation.  Progressives have used the ruse of "separation of church and state," which is not in the Constitution, to rabidly attack everything Christian.  Christians should have as much influence in our culture and on our government as anyone else.  Behind every law is some sort of value, and the source of that value is vital.

Now, here is another item of galactic importance in our Declaration.  Here is what it says: that men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights[.]"  Those rights, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," are from God Himself, not from governments or government leaders.  So the Declaration is a most vital statement by the Founders.  The importance of this cannot be overemphasized.  To an atheist leader like Stalin, Lenin, Mao or Hitler, people have no God-given rights at all.

So now we are at a vital point: most of the time, when someone removes God from an equation, the result is confusion, dysfunction, and incoherency.  Liberalism does this routinely and with reckless abandon.  It is incoherent to suggest that abortion does not snuff out a life.  It is incoherent to suggest that there is virtue in deficit spending.  It is incoherent to suggest that there is no God, and Hitler just died and that's the end of it.

But for most progressives, that incoherence is preferable to the difficulty of having God in the equation.  If God is in the equation, then maybe He has something to say about how I live and what I do.  He might very well have some sort of claim on my very existence.

The Founding Fathers were an enlightened bunch, and they afforded God his proper place.  In the beginning...

[Quix]

THX THX

[Tonytitan]

The Constitution is the brick that builds America. Freedom as described by the Declaration is the mortar.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Bump

[RoadTest]

They gripe when you mention Him and smirk when you don’t.

[RoadTest]

Alexis deTocqueville said that religion was the reason for America’s exceptionalism; that, while religion stifled and held people back in Europe, it liberated and ennobled and empowered us here in the United States. Early 1800s.

[RoadTest]

Cool document site!!! I like turning on the floodlights.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The Declaration of Independence . . . has four references to God: once in each of the first two paragraphs and twice in the last paragraph.

Progressives delight in proclaiming that God is not mentioned in the Constitution.

Actually, He is mentioned there:

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth. In Witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names.

[loveliberty2]

Your comment, "It has four references to God: once in each of the first two paragraphs and twice in the last paragraph," is significant, because each of these references represents different manifestations of God:

1 - As "Creator," from whom all individual rights are derived and, therefore, are "inalienable."

2 - As "nature's god" and source of "the laws of nature."

3 - As "Divine Providence" providing ongoing oversight to creation and the affairs of human beings.

4 - As the "Supreme Judge" of the world--thereby implying a corresponding individual responsibility and accountability.

From James Madison, sometimes called "the father of the Constiuttion":

"It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe." James Madison’s “Remonstrance

As President, Thomas Jefferson, in 1801, stated: "I offer my sincere prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, that He may long preserve our country in freedom and prosperity."

And, in 1804's "Second Inaugural," Jefferson asserted, "I shall need the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, Who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; Who has covered our infancy with His providence, and our riper years with His wisdom and power; and to who goodness I ask you to join with me in supplication, that He will so enlightedn the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations."

As late as 1819, Jefferson said, "We are not in a world ungoverned by the laws and the power of a Superior Agent. Our efforts are in His hand, and directed by it; and He will give them their effect in His own time."

Most of the Founders are on record with similar acknowledgements of these ideas. Hear James Madison again on March 4, 1809:

". . . we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations."

Then, there are the words from George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789, "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor . . . ."

On and on, we can find in the Founders' words the strong assertions of these ideas which helped to form the foundation of our Constitution's protections for liberty. The quotations cited here can be found in "Our Ageless Constitution," a book originally published in 1987.

[loveliberty2]

Ooops! If you wish to use one of Jefferson's quotations from above, please copy from the following corrected version.

In 1804's "Second Inaugural," Jefferson asserted, "I shall need the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, Who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; Who has covered our infancy with His providence, and our riper years with His wisdom and power; and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplication, that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations."

[neverdem]

Thanks for the quotes & link!

[Hush44]

thanks for the ping...great thread !