Let Freedom Ring!
Those who established the framework for this new nation clearly understood that it was the rights of man that must take first importance and that government is created by free men to serve free men. Of paramount importance was that free men must remain free.
In forming this new nation then, two distinct concepts became predominant: limiting the scope and power of governance and recognizing and insuring the rights of the governed. Senator Cruz continued “[Our] Constitution began from two radical premises. The first is that our rights come not from kings or queens — or even from presidents — but from God. As the Declaration of Independence put it, ‘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, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Second, in the Constitution, America’s Founders inverted the understanding of sovereignty. Power comes not from the top down, but up, from ‘We the People, …’ Freedom works. No other nation on Earth has allowed so many millions to come with nothing and achieve so much.”
Our Constitution is a written testament, an ode to the natural and essential state of man, freedom. Within its confines are contained the limits of the state and the rights and freedoms of its citizens. The first freedom is the freedom to practice one’s faith, unencumbered or constrained by any power of the state. It is the first and most cherished freedom; it is a foundational freedom for without religious freedom, all other freedoms are at risk.
Our founding fathers, some Christian and others not, as a matter of principle, believed that the Law of God trumped the law of man. Or as R. R. Reno writes “[Religion] gives transcendent substance to the rights of man that limit government. Put somewhat differently, religion gives us a place to stand outside politics, and without it we’re vulnerable to a system in which the state defines everything, which is the essence of tyranny.”
The history of America is 237 years in the making. It is good that we remember and enjoy her bounty. But we must also remember that God made us in his image and likeness. It is God who gives us life. It is God who bestowed on America its bounty. Our freedom to praise God and to do His will is our first and greatest freedom. Let freedom ring.