The Patriot Post - Liberty -- Endowed by Whom?

________________________________________
The Patriot Post - Liberty -- Endowed by Whom?
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________

Liberty -- Endowed by Whom?
The Eternal Bequest

By Mark Alexander

July 3, 2013

"God who gave us life gave us Liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever." --Thomas Jefferson (1774)

Amid all the contemporary political and cultural contests, too many conservatives fail to make the case for overarching eternal truths -- whether in debate with adversaries across the aisles of Congress, or with neighbors across Main Street.

Lost in the din is the foundational endowment of Essential Liberty1, and any debate that does not begin with this eternal truth will end with temporary deceits.

The most oft-cited words from our Declaration of Independence2 are these: "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."

The eternal assertion that Liberty for all people is "endowed by their Creator" and is thus "unalienable" should require no defense, because "we hold these truths to be self-evident," and because the rights of man are irrevocable from the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God."

But the root of all debate between Liberty and tyranny -- or, in political parlance, between Right and left -- is the contest to assert who endows Liberty -- God or man.

The left's humanist position has been made plainly evident by Barack Hussein Obama3, who has a history of deliberately and repeatedly omitting the words4 "endowed by their Creator" when citing in open constituent forums the Declaration's reference to "Rights." What, exactly, is the inspiration for such overt and explicit omissions by the titular head of the Democratic Party5?

Contemporary Leftist protagonists6 seek to replace Rule of Law1 with the rule of men7. This is because the former is predicated on the principle that Liberty is "endowed by our Creator," while the latter asserts that government is the giver of Liberty.

The history of man, since its first record, has repeatedly and tragically documented that when the people settle for the assertion that government is the source of their rights, tyranny is the inevitable result. And tyrants always attempt to undermine Liberty by driving a wedge between it and its foundational endowment8 by our Creator.

For generations, American liberals have driven that wedge by asserting that our Constitution provides a "wall of separation9" between church and state. But does it?

The short answer is "yes," but it is most certainly not the faux wall constructed by judicial activists, who have grossly adulterated the plain language of our First Amendment10 especially during the last 50 years.

Contrary to what many liberals would have us believe, the words "wall of separation between church and state" do not appear in our Constitution -- nor is this notion even implied. Thomas Jefferson penned those words in an obscure 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association11 in response to concerns about Connecticut's establishment of Congregationalism as their state church. Jefferson assuaged their concerns, telling the Baptists that the First Amendment prohibited the national government from establishing a "national church," but he concluded rightly that the Constitution prohibited the national government from interfering with the matters of state governments -- a "wall of separation," if you will, between federal and state governments12.

The "wall of separation" argument is thus a phony one. Indeed, it is a blueprint for tyranny.

We are created, from the beginning, in the Image of God, and that image is the essence of Liberty, the well of all rights for all people for all time.

Our enlightened Founders, in their revolutionary opposition to tyranny, looked far beyond kings and parliaments to the enduring source of the rights of man, and they enumerated in our Declaration of Independence that we are, indeed, created in God's Image for His purpose, and that no man could strip that endowment from the soul of another. Thus, we have the equal capacity to be free, personal, rational, creative and moral beings, and we are entitled to be so through His endowment.

These rights and freedoms were further enshrined in our Constitution13.

In 1776, John Hancock wrote of Jacob Duché, the first Chaplain appointed by the Continental Congress, "Congress ... from a consideration of your ... zealous attachment to the rights of America, appoint(s) you their Chaplain." Duché, Pastor of Philadelphia's Christ Church, captured the spirit of the American Revolution, saying, "Civil liberty is as much the gift of God in Christ Jesus ... as our spiritual freedom... 'Standing fast' in that liberty, wherewith Christ, as the great providential Governor of the world, hath made us free."

It is in that spirit that we at The Patriot Post adopted our motto, Veritas vos Liberabit -- "The Truth Will Set You Free" (John 8:32). That is the essence of the assertion that we are "endowed by our Creator" with life and Liberty.

Ignorance of the true and eternal source of the rights of man is fertile ground for the Left's assertion that government endows such rights. It is also perilous ground, soaked with the blood of generations of American Patriots. As Jefferson wrote, "The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

Indeed, the "Cycle of Democracy14" demands this tonic. And despite the pervasive assault on Liberty by the current legions of Leftist NeoComs6, to paraphrase the great Prussian military historian, theorist and tactician Carl von Clausewitz15, "the best defense is a good offense."